Author's Note: gah, the POTC vibe isn't going away! is this a bad thing? -shrug- i don't know what the critics were thinking about two star ratings for that movie! i'm gonna go see it again before school gets out. XDD couldn't ask for anything better!
well, seeing as it's still stuck in my head, i still have a lot of creativeness...ness. XDD thank you so much for the people that read and reviewed for chapter one! i'm just...eheh...do i deserve it?? -bows- i keep thinking that my writing isn't happy! DX oh well! i'll just have to wait and see how i progress with practice!
hope you enjoy chapter 2! ...roxas is still a'runnin...XO run, run! run to...bum bum bum -is sporked-
Chapter 2: 2,000 Point Attraction
Moving through the town at night had to be the most disgusting and difficult part of Roxas' life. He didn't do it often, but when he did, he wished he'd been dead. For one thing, the streets all stank of booze and cheap, flowery perfume. Mixed together with vomit wasn't the greatest...
He skipped over the mud-spattered pathway, following Sora by only an arms length. He made sure to keep his steps soft on the ground and he wished that Sora would do the same. They could be shot in the head by now. The whole way, during those sharp turns and near fatal slips, he didn't say a thing. Who could say that someone was waiting around the corner to stab him?
Finally, Sora slowed down on the last turn and crouched down in the dirt, grabbing behind him to pull Roxas beside him. Roxas groaned, covered his mouth to cover up his panting, and stared forward at a widely lit square. Sora knew where all the action was.
The lights lit up the area in a shade of rum orange. To the right were a couple of walk-in bars with squeaky stools and salty roofs. To the left were houses, dark with saltwater with wooden swords leaning up against the doorways; the towns cheap source of protection. Right in the center of the square was a fountain, a small one that five people could stand around at once. Now, there were five women, normal women, bound at the ankles and tied at their wrists which were held behind their backs. They sat completely still on the stone fountain, heads turned toward their feet with their eyes shut.
"Prisoners, you think?" Sora whispered over his shoulder. Roxas didn't answer and nudged him in the side.
He reached over to his pocket and unintentionally wrapped two fingers around the handle of the gun. This looked bad, in all honesty, and he hadn't even seen the ones who caused it yet.
He noticed dead bodies sprawled out at the women's feet, single holes of blood in the back of each one of their heads. Most of them were women that probably tried to resist; a couple were young male teens that probably tried to defend. Heartless.
"Look here..." a stern male voice caught Roxas' attention. It was sophisticated, considering he had an English accent. The man chuckled and finally showed his face in Roxas' line of vision. A blonde man, with a fairly wide chest and broad shoulders stepped up to one of the women on the fountain, scratching his short trimmed beard.
"'Kay, let's move," Sora whispered.
"What?!" Roxas hissed again when Sora, still crouching down, inched out into the light and around the wall. When he saw that the man hadn't noticed, he followed and flattened his back against the wall where several other men were doing the same. Cowards, he guessed. Then again, so was he.
Now he was able to see all the people that started the shooting. One, with an eye patch over his right eye and silver streaks through his jet black hair, carried a pistol in each hand; both hissing out steam. He figured he could've started the killings.
All of them were perfectly fit or incredibly thin men dressed from top to bottom in black and white leather clothes. Some of them were normally tall, save for about three that were about his height. He counted their heads...9 of them.
"I told you! They're pirates, I know it."
Roxas nudged Sora again when the blonde haired man pulled his head up and continued to walk around the fountain, flicking a gold coin in his hand the whole time. He stopped, which caused the women to shudder, and tossed the coin before snatching it in mid air. He smiled thinly.
"We're in need of additions to our crew," he said, pointing his chin in the direction of the other 8 men. "Your island happens to be one that's been hiding...so," he chirruped and turned the gold in his large fingers, "we expect there to be a good handful of undiscovered pirates here, hm?"
Sora smiled and winked at Roxas. "Told you so."
Roxas still didn't believe in it.
"...It won't do any good."
The man turned his head down at one woman he was standing in front of and cupped her chin. "What's that?" he whispered eerily.
"There's no one here for you to take. No one's willing to go with the likes of you!" Her voice was shaking uncontrollably. What was she doing? Asking for death? Just as Roxas thought it, the man reached behind him and pulled out a short, thin dagger which he drew to the woman's neck. She weakly screamed and men and women on the side lines started screaming themselves.
"No one, huh?" He bared his teeth at her and tensed his hand. Roxas turned away, waiting for a bloody gag to come but it never did. Only another gunshot. The crowd shut up again in dead silence. Even Sora had nothing to say.
Carefully, he cracked his eyes open and turned back around to the fountain. She was dead, but not by the dagger...by a perfectly aimed gunshot to the exact center of the back of her head. The man was still holding the dagger to her neck, jaw dropped. The other 8 of them turned heads toward an alleyway where the bullet traveled from. Roxas followed their example and stared, not realizing that he had rose to his feet.
"Horrible aim, that time." The voice was another man's voice, but it was young and light; nearly relaxed rather than violent. His voice had a light cockiness to it and after some words he said, he carried it out in a husky drone. Roxas felt bumps run up his bare arms and up his spine. Who...?
"S-Sir?" The blonde man asked, formally straightening up. He dropped the woman's body and she fell into the pile of corpses. Roxas cringed and stared back in the direction of the alley. Sir? The guy had to be scary enough to freak out someone as frightening as that guy.
Some seconds later, someone stepped into the orange light, causing the group of men to move off to the side for him to pass through. When they did, Roxas' eyes dilated out of some random rush of pleasure.
The man stood a good foot and a half over Roxas' height, and that was minus the volume of his fire red hair that was neatly styled in spikes of different lengths. A couple of loose strands fell over his slanted, venom green eyes that, even from that distance, Roxas could tell had black makeup outlining them. Under each eye was a diamond shaped tattoo. On his left ear were at least five earrings, placed in a pattern of three silver studs and two gold rings.
His face was narrow, not terribly narrow, as was his neck. Roxas' eyes continued to wander down, observing the man's incredibly thin midsection and wide, curvaceous hips. His legs were longer than most and were perfectly shaped from what Roxas could see from the black pants that clung tightly to the man's skin, which was medium tan.
His outfit wasn't that of a pirate's...at least he thought so. Aside from those tight, black pants that tucked into a pair of folded black boots at his ankles, he also wore a rather revealing black vest with nothing underneath to hide his bare chest and stomach. At his waist, Roxas counted at least three thin belts that were red in color. He figured they were just there for decoration since they couldn't hold up much of anything. Around his neck, to complete the outfit entirely, was a single black necklace with a dull key that just rested on his collarbone.
Roxas lightly shook his head, causing his spikes to bounce. Those goosebumps weren't going away anytime soon. He couldn't tell if it was the fact that he was afraid or if he was actually attracted to...no.
The man smirked hazily and took quick, wide steps toward the fountain while the other guys laughed for him.
"He's the captain," Sora whispered, leaning in toward Roxas who wasn't exactly responding, "I can tell."
"Captain..." Roxas repeated to himself. That word just rolled off his tongue so easily.
"It's sad, isn't it? Having to waste lives like that..." He stopped walking and, using the tip of his pistol, ran it through one of the women's hair. She breathed in and held her breath. "Hmph. Well, this is boring. Amazing what you can find off the charts." He talked like an older teenager and even looked like one. He took a while to straighten up and gaze around at the square, his smirk widening as each person seemed to duck away from him.
"So, who's in charge of this island?" He raised his voice somewhat, stared forward and crossed his long arms over his chest. That pistol was still in his right hand.
Roxas turned to the right where the bar was and eyed a brunette 'someone' lounging on one of the stools. Leon wasn't exactly in charge of The Isles. He just happened to be one of the strongest and most attractive guys. What was worse was that he had a slight ego problem to fix. Roxas watched while Leon kept his face straight and stood up from his seat.
"You could say it's me."
The other man turned his neck, cracking it once, and stared at Leon at an angle. "The name's Axel. Captain. I trust you to..." he twirled his fingers nonchalantly in the air, "remember it?"
"He is the captain..." Roxas whispered to himself. Sora probably overheard anyway.
"That's sorta weird, huh? Too wimpy looking."
"Didn't you see him shoot her square in the head?" Roxas replied only to be shut up by Sora's raised finger. Their personalities were changing in the spur of the moment; Roxas suddenly believing in pirates and Sora suddenly regretting belief.
Obviously, this guy was far from wimpy.
As much as Roxas knew that Leon could choke a person with one hand, take a single slash through them with a gunblade or send them running with a death stare, he was pretty sure that Leon wouldn't make it out of this one...he just couldn't. He almost felt like standing between the two...then again, he'd be dead before he could get there.
"Captain," Leon stated, raising his head, "you're purpose here?"
Axel's eyebrows rose while the smirk on his face twisted in disbelief. He uncrossed his arms and let them drop to his side while he chuckled hotly. He leaned back a little and took a step forward. The whole crowd twitched.
"You honestly need me to remind you? Luxord, ooo...not a very trustworthy messenger are you?" Axel smoothly glanced over his shoulder at the blonde man, Luxord, Roxas guessed, who cleared his throat and switched weight between his feet. Axel clicked his tongue and turned back to Leon, raising the silver pistol to the sky before cocking it.
"He'll shoot 'im...he's gonna shoot his own goon!" Sora squealed, nearly in delight at Roxas' feet. Roxas had the sudden urge to kick mud in his brother's face. He wanted to watch this.
Then, to everyone's surprise and relief, the gun unlatched from the back, sending gold bullet shells to the puddles below. With the last bullet out, Axel scoffed and tossed the gun to his feet, uncaringly kicking muddy water over it.
"If you need a repeat," he tucked his right hand in his pocket and continued, "We're here for people worthy enough to serve under me. Esclavo."
Leon looked taken aback but his face remained straight. He took his own step forward before taking it back again. "Slaves?"
"Oh, so you understood that? Don't expect anymore, it's the only Spanish I know." A couple of the men behind him snickered. Axel himself didn't laugh. Just watching Leon's perplexed face was entertaining enough.
Leon shook his head somewhat, probably not allowing humiliation, and stared at Axel with his head lowered. "Slaves. That's a heavy request. Pirates such as you should know better than to expect an immediate agreement."
Axel sighed, rolled his neck in boredom and looked up at the dark sky in thought. He nodded to himself before curling his other hand into a fist once, twice...over and over again. Was that meant to be a threat?
"Of course, but, seeing as you're one that knows pirates such as myself, and I am a pirate such as myself, you should know as well as I that pirates never ask for things. There has to be a little...fun to it. There's no such thing as a simple question and answer session, oh no. We pirates need a give and take."
Axel paused after catching the twisted look on Leon's face. Roxas' eyes narrowed while he examined the look on Axel's. He had to be a pirate. He was distorting everything he said.
"Everyone wins, mate."
"Win? You want to play a game?" Leon asked in doubt.
"You have dice on you?"
"So we are playing a game."
"You do have dice."
"Are we playing a game or not?"
"That depends on if you have dice or not."
With a frustrated groan, Leon ducked his hand into his pocket and pulled out two wooden dice that were painted a yellowing color of white with black dots that were slowly chipping off. He held both in his hand and tossed them to the ground where they sat in the mud, expecting Axel to move for them.
Roxas understood this. If Axel went for the dice, Leon would have the chance to go for him. Honestly, what good would that do? Nothing.
Axel seemed to think the same thing. He just didn't seem to be taking that as a threat to fight. After all, he'd emptied his pistol. With a cunning smile curving on his lips, he blinked and pointed his chin in the direction of Leon's pocket.
"Gonna need more than that, mate. The game of Greed calls for 6 dice."
"Greed? No one's known how to play that one for years...at least, that's what dad used to tell us, right?" Sora hissed up at Roxas who once again didn't respond. That was true. Greed was never played often because it was considered a 'pirate' game. A superstition.
Those who played it risked having pirates coming to their homes at night to drown them at sea before stealing their dice. It was a stupid sea story. He had to see it to believe it.
Leon reached back into his pocket and fished out four more dice, this time holding them tightly in his fist. "You'll cheat."
"Pft. Cheat? I may be a pirate, but that doesn't mean that I can't play civilized every once in a blue moon. Go on. They are your dice anyway. How could I cheat?" Axel's voice rose to an innocent level, the kind of tone that anyone could pull off to mooch off someone else.
With a flick of his wrist, Leon sent the dice in a scattered pile with the other two. Roxas could tell he was disappointed that his first attempt at attacking hadn't worked...and it didn't look like he had a plan B. Axel, on the other hand...he looked like he had a whole book of plans; his eyes were sparkling something awful.
"Well, go on. I don't believe in superstition."
"Then why do you avoid dice games so much?" Axel began taking slow steps toward the pile of dice. Several eyes followed him and trembled because of him. Roxas didn't understand why people hadn't runaway by now. It looked like the situation was now between these two and 3 pairs of dice.
"Judging by the faces of these dice," Axel started while taking three of the dice in between his long fingers, "I'd say that you haven't paid much attention to them." He carefully ran a finger across the top of each one and eventually took the other three in his other hand. "Shame. You can win more than you know in a dice game."
"Fine. Then let me know what I can. State the rules."
"Each man takes his turn in rolling the 6 dice, once on each turn. The score depends on the number of dots that face up on each dice. One 1 gives you 100 points. Triple 2's gives 200 points. Triple 3's gives 300...so on. The most you can win in a roll are six 1's: 8,000 points. Normally the winning player needs 10,000 points..." he turned his hands over to further examine the dice.
From what Roxas could see, he was squinting at them with lips parted. It looked like he could've fallen in love with them. Then again, it wouldn't make much sense for a pirate to afll in love. Axel finally looked back up and his face went straight for the first time.
"I'm feeling impatient so...I'll reduce it to 1,000. That makes the highest roll two 2's, two 3's and two 4's: 800 points. If you win the 1,000, you keep the people and I give you anything you want at this moment, this very time and place. If I win, I keep the people of my choice and they remain with me for as long as I want them. That's the thing I might want most right now, this time and place. Fair?"
Leon opened his mouth to speak only to be shut up again.
"Of course it is. Pirates made up the rules so I'd know them to be fair...you should too, mate, seeing as you know us pirates so well."
"You're a real bastard," Leon ridiculed through gritted teeth, flinging his hand out to demand a dice roll.
Axel just let it roll off him like rain water. He pursed his lips and tossed all six dice into his left hand, shaking them once before sending them flying at Leon's feet. The crowd shook and all eyes followed those dice. Truthfully, they were like fate right now. Roxas' heart pumped violently and he had to shake his hands to dry them out. He was sweating like crazy.
The first four landed and skidded to an immediate stop: two 2's...two 3's...
The final two landed beside each other, far apart from the others. Two 4's.
"800..." Roxas gasped and looked up from the ground to the captain, who looked rather unpleased with himself. It seemed that everything perfect in other people's eyes reflected as corrupt in his mind. He clenched his jaw and glared at Axel intently. It was Leon's roll now.
The dice flew back toward Axel, all landing in separate places from each other. Three 2's, one 4, and two 3's. Only 200 points. That was 800 points away...more like 800 rolls away from 1,000. Leon needed a miracle to win this. Roxas stared out at the crowd while people already began saying their goodbyes.
Sure enough, on the next roll, Axel landed three 1's and three 2's. That was already 1,200 points. Plus 800 made, that an extended win. Impossible...right?
There were scattered groans and wails from the sidelines. Leon rubbed the back of his head, just staring at the ground where his muddy dice were scooped up and caged in Axel's slender hands.
"2,000 points," Leon simply stated in defeat.
"No! You're not gonna take him!" some teenage kid yelled to Roxas' left. Roxas inched to the right and Sora stood up, suddenly looking concerned. He just now realized how 'wimpy' this pirate was.
"I won't let you take them!" The boy went on yelling, standing in front of other teens that refused to react; were too afraid to react. He kept his thin arms stretched over them. Roxas knew it wouldn't do any good; a gunshot could cause them to fall in a second. As he expected, the one man with the eye patch over his eye readied one of his guns at the simple nod from over Axel's shoulder.
His eyes widened again. Something surged right through him, an intense heat that began from his head to his fingertips. If he had to see one more person dead...just one more...
"STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM HIM!" Those words just near exploded from Roxas' throat. In the short seconds that it took him to kick up from the ground, run toward the left and stand between a stranger and a bullet, he never once thought about his death. Screams rang in his ears, signaling that the shot had been fired...he just couldn't hear it.
With eyes squeezed tight, Roxas felt his arms thrust out to his sides. He thought that it might have been a heroic impulse. But, did being heroic hurt this much? Near collapsing, his bright eyes cracked open, coming to the strange realization that he had protected someone...he just need someone to protect him now.
-munches on peanuts- i've been having the biggest craving for peanuts all week. i don't think it's because of the pirates movie. i'm pretty sure its just...a phase? a peanut phase? O.o
mft, i keep thinking that i need to lay off hanging stories off high places when i end them! i feel so...mehhh -dies of unoriginality- my sensei was like: "you are very original! so happy! as long as it will keep their faces smiling and clapping they will be like YATTA!!" wow, i love my sensei. X3
again with the shooting. axel is a "yarg, shiver me timbers...got it memor..." -slap- no. let's not get into the signature line. let's just stick to axel sparrow...that was even worse to say...! DDX at least 10 more reviews please? they've inspired me so much and i'm sure that they will continue to do so. -nod nod-
...my peanut...s,
kokoro77