Another chapter of Scarlet Wind for your viewing pleasure.
The reasons why I've updated this chapter insanely quickly are because…
This fight is mostly ACTION! And it is short (compared to the first and second chapters I think)
I really want to start working on my holiday homework (yes, I got homework on my fortnight off :( Sucks…), the one-shot requests and, most importantly, Search The Wind…(dodges a spear from the crowd) I'LL GET IT UP SOON, BE PATIENT!
I really wanted to make a big cliff hanger before I switched onto another story for a while…you'll know what I mean when you read it…
So without further ado, let's begin Scarlet Wind Chapter 1 Act 2!
By the way, this chapter is dedicated to Polar, who gave me a really good idea to use in this chapter.
I hope you enjoy.
Chapter 1: Predators: Act 2
(Nami p.o.v)
"And so as you can see here, the leopard is a natural predator due to the way it's evolved to have a spotted skin, which it has adapted to help with camouflage. The same goes for Polar Bears, who have evolved into possessing thick fur coats so they can survive the chilling cold of the Arctic tundra. Any questions?" At that moment, before any one could say anything more, a loud bell rang out in the class room. Immediately, students all around the room begin to pack away getting ready to leave. Mr. Beckman yells over the shuffling of students and bags that we're supposed to read chapters 12 and 13 in our books before the next lesson. Of course, no-one really hears him but I manage to note it down in my notebook as I start to leave.
"Excuse me Nami; can I talk to you before you go?" Hearing my name being called, I turn to see Mr. Beckman staring at me with a sad gaze. Nervously, I approach him.
"Yes sir?" I ask politely
"Luffy's not back yet…" Mr Beckman says bitterly.
"I'm sure he's just taking his time to rinse his hands thoroughly" I reason.
"He's been gone for an hour!"
"…he's very enthusiastic about washing his hands…"
"Nami…now is not the time for jokes" At Beckman's command, I fall silent and glance to the floor "Do you know where he is?" Beckman asks. I shake my head sadly.
"I really don't know…" I answer quietly, my eyes still glued to the floor.
"You know Nami…sticking up for Luffy will only get him in more trouble…"
"I'M NOT STICKING UP FOR HIM!" I yell loudly, shocking the calm Beckman. Realising my rude bellow, I quickly try to regain some of my composure by looking away from Beckman's gaze.
"Luffy's…just a little off lately…I haven't really had much time to talk to him recently…" Beckman pauses for a moment but then nods at me.
"Okay then Nami…if you see him, you'll let me know right?" I nod in return and Beckman sits back down behind his desk "Thank you…you can go now Nami…have a nice day"
"Thank you Mr. Beckman…I'll see you later" I then left Beckman to his silence as I exited the room and closed the door. The corridor was as empty as a ghost town, so I decided to take a moment's pause. I walked over to the wall opposite and I sat down on the floor. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my mobile. I dialled Luffy's number and placed the phone to my ear.
"Hey, you've reached the mobile of Monkey D. Luffy. I'm obviously not here right now…it's like talking to a ghost right?... Anyway, you should leave a message and let me get back to you later…or you could just wait there and listen to my sexy voice some more if you wanted…" I roll my eyes and sigh at the sound of Luffy's voicemail and pocket my phone sadly.
Luffy…where the hell are you?
(Luffy p.o.v)
The rooftop was eerily silent as I stared at my new opponent. Who the heck was this guy? Had he just leapt from a helicopter or something? How the hell had he gotten up here? I glance slightly to my right. Arlong and his goons are no-where in sight. This guy's caused me to loose them…well; I might as well take this guy out…whoever he is, he's obviously looking for a fight…so I might as well beat him quickly so I can get back to school.
"Okay buddy" I call, glaring at the figure in the top-hat "I need to get going so if you wanna fight, come on!" At my demand, the bearded man laughs loudly at me.
"All right then…I guess we should start then…"
And with that, the guy suddenly steps forward…and then he's right in front of me. I blink in surprise as I feel the man's fist impacts with my stomach. I spit out a small bit of blood and quickly kick forward with my left leg. The man dodges the arc of my kick and leaps backward to his original position. After a few steps backward from the blow to my stomach, I look up at him with wide eyes, my legs suddenly quivering at his presence. How come this guy was so…so fast? The man chuckles as he stands up from his crouched position and takes up a fighting stance with his two legs clamped together, his right palm pointing out to me and his left arm draped at his side.
"And to think…I'd thought you'd be a challenge" the man taunts with a sly smirk "Looks like I'll be able to beat you without pushing myself too far…" I can't help but smile at his arrogance and I take up my usual fighting stance as well.
"I've not even started" I mutter and in a flash, I've launched forward my right fist. The man's eyes widen and he sidesteps the punch, calmly grabbing hold of my wrist.
"Nice try but…" he starts to say but is suddenly interrupted as instead of my arm snapping back to its original size at my side, my body is pulled forward, due to his grip on my arm and I head butt him roughly in the chest with incredible speed. The man groans in pain and his grip loosens on my wrist. Before he can recover, I quickly land on my feet and send my released right fist flying towards his face. The fist hits him square on the nose and I quickly proceed to follow the punch up with another one from my other hand. Unfortunately, as my right fist recoils slightly, the man delivers a swift kick to my left hand side, causing me to shift to my right to dodge it. Due to my new sideways perspective, I deliver a swift elbow blow towards the man's left arm. The fist makes contact and the man winces as my left hand side turns back around and my fist continues in an arc, flying into his abdomen and sending him to the floor a few feet away. As my muscles start to relax, I sigh with relief.
"Guess he wasn't anything special…" I mutter as I turn around. I'm sure I've missed a lot of Beckman's class but I can at least get back before the end of the lesson.
"…I admit kid, I underestimated you…" At the sound of the man's voice, I tense up and turn around…only to receive a kick to my chest. I gasp in surprise and stagger backwards, looking up at the man standing in front of me. The bird on his shoulder now absent and the hat on his head removed. Nervously, I take four unsteady steps backward and stand there, panting and glaring at this mysterious assailant.
Sorry Beckman…this is gonna take longer than I thought…
(Zoro p.o.v)
I'm often told that I don't notice a lot of things…mostly because I'm half asleep at the time. That really stopped after that talk I had with my uncle Hawkeye. He's the only real family I've ever had and when I first became interested in swords and duelling, he taught me a great life lesson. To be a swordsman, a person must have a great awareness of their environment. They must be aware of every flaw of the human body and be able to pick out the one moment and the one area of the body where his opponent will be weakest…even if I hadn't known all of that, even I could realise that Luffy's disappearances were becoming a regular oddity. It had started ever since we started school last week, Luffy would almost never turn up for lessons and if he did, he'd be late. Not to sound like a wuss…but I'm starting to worry about him…Plus, whenever I've tried to meet up with him on the weekends to hang out, he's been really distant. He's been like that all summer and now, I'm kinda concerned about him. I know I'm not alone in that regard either. Nami seems really distant recently when Luffy's been concerned. I could tell all the way through summer and I can tell she's worried now as she sits down in front of me in English. Pell looks over at her and, realising Luffy's not here, he sighs as well and keeps talking about Jekyll and Hyde…something about doppelgangers and dual identities but I'm not really listening…It's like without Luffy here all the fun goes out of everything…I think it's that way for everyone else as well. Usopp's just doodling in his book (something about him being a super-hero or some crazy shit like that) and he keeps looking over to Luffy's seat and seems really sad that the idiot's not here. Dart-brow's also distracted and instead of spending the lesson eying up girls and swooning over them, he's just sitting in his chair like a melancholy old man who's just too tired to move. Chopper seems down as well. He's sitting next to me and I can see him almost falling asleep at Pell's voice. Vivi and Kaya are equally down and they keep sighing with sadness. Nami looks the most bored, her eyes glued to the view out the window. To add insult to injury, even Robin's in a funk. Robin? THE ROBIN SAD? I know, shocks me too. Usually she's never this out of it but she's so distracted, she isn't even putting her hand up to answer questions. I know what you're thinking. THE ROBIN NOT INTERESTED IN SCHOOL WORK? Exactly my point. It's like Luffy's dead or something…
"Zoro, are you listening?" Pell's words snap me out of my daze and I nod.
"Yeah"
"Then what did I just say?"
"Er…" Darn you Luffy…
"As I thought. Please listen in future" Pell says before returning to the board. I sigh quietly and look out the window.
This is gonna be a long day…
(Luffy p.o.v)
How the hell is this guy even standing right now?
I've hit him, I've kicked him…
I've even freaking head-butted him and he's still standing?
WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO BEAT THIS GUY?
The bearded man starts laughing loudly and gives me a sly glare.
"I suppose I'm going to have to end this quickly" the man mutters at me. He clasps his hands together and cracks his knuckles loudly. I shiver at the sound and quickly get into a fighting position. Calmly, the man removes a small yellow pill from his pocket and grins at me.
"What the hecks that?" I ask angrily, my eyes focused on the pill in the man's hand. The stranger laughs loudly at me and smiles.
"I might as well tell you…after all, it'll be the last thing you'll hear" he comments "You see brat, I've been hired to take you down. Usually, I wouldn't be able to beat you like I am now…so, I had a little operation to make me strong enough to be able to fight you. This pill of mine is basically a one way ticket to beating you. The transformation only lasts for half an hour…but I think that that'll be enough time for me to put you out of your misery" I cock my head to the side in complete confusion. Transformation? What the heck was this guy talking about?
Unfortunately, I was just about to find out…
The man lowered the pill into his mouth and swallowed it whole with a large gulp. The moment he swallowed the pill, his body seemed to shake in place. His breathing became more and more erratic and the man's smile seemed to widen sickeningly. Slowly, the body of the stranger began to change. His chest and his torso appeared to grow in size and his arms became wider and thicker. As his body became larger, his tuxedo began to rip and tear and by the time his body had stopped growing, his shirt and blazer had literally been ripped to shreds and were now littering the floor. Thank god his legs hadn't grown in size as his pants remained intact. Whilst the size of his legs stayed relatively the same, however, the shape of them changed to that of an animal, with claws for toes. Whatever this man had been was no more and instead, there was a large leopard man standing before me. My mouth hung open at the sight of this giant creature.
"Prepare Scarlet Wind to meet your match"
I mutter a string of swear words under my breath repeatedly. My first super villain? I'm not sure whether to be excited or scared for my life.
Luckily, the excitement takes over.
"So you're basically a giant leopard man? SWEET! I've always wanted to beat a super villain!" I announce with glee. The leopard smiles widely and laughs.
"You're awfully cocky for someone who's about to die" the man replies. I start laughing in response.
"Are you kidding? This is so cool! I'm gonna kick your ass"
"Prepare to be quite unpleasantly surprised…" In an instant, the leopard is suddenly right in front of me. Swiftly, he slashes forwards with his left hand, his claws barely missing my chest as I sidestep to avoid him.
"So Kitty cat" I ask, leaping further away from him "who gave you the instant super powers pills?" The leopard smirks sinisterly at my question and sprints quickly towards me.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" he sarcastically asks as he pounces at me, claws bared.
"Yeah, that's why I asked" I reply, firing a rubber fist at the leopard. Surprisingly, the stranger sidesteps my fist and as he runs past me, the claws on his left hand sink into my abdomen. I scream slightly in pain and the leopard man casually flings me over to the building next to the rooftop. I fly through a glass window, the shards cutting slightly into my skin as I crash through the window. I hit the floor and immediately spring to my feet, landing in a crouching position. Glancing around, I realise I'm in an office. Thank god no-one's using it right now or this would be a really odd surprise for them. I touch the deep claw marks on my abdomen and wince at the pain. Shit, that hurts a lot. Angrily, I look over to the window where the leopard-man has just entered the room. As he approaches me, he grabs hold of one of the nearby desks and then, throws it at me. I leap over the desk (with the wood barely touching my stomach) and stretch out two arms forward towards the leopard. I grab hold of his shoulders and I heave myself forward, sending me rocketing into the guy's chest…the only difference being that before, that worked…now? The feline warrior takes the hit but instead of stumbling backwards, he grabs hold of my arms and pulls them down, bringing my head into contact with his knee. After that, he casually throws me to the right, where I smash through another window. Geez, my head is ringing right now. Quickly, before I hit the street below, I fire out both of my arms towards the shattered window. I manage to get a grip on the broken glass (that hurts like hell as well) and, I spring upwards. As I re-enter the building through the broken window, I catch the leopard unawares and quickly deliver an uppercut to his chin and then hit him square in the ribs with a rubber kick. THAT finally does some damage and the fanged beast starts to stagger backwards, clasping his jaw. I can't let up now I've got him on the ropes…
"Aw, little kitty hurt himself!" I mock with a confident smile as I quickly deliver a flurry of punches in his direction. A couple of the blows hit him but the rest, the leopard counters by blocking with his large forearms.
"Stop calling me KITTY!" the large cat bellows as he charges forward. I vault over him, escaping his grip and then stretch out my leg, hoping it hits him in the back. It misses and the leopard leaps onto the ceiling, clutching it with his huge claws.
"Then tell me your name then and I'll stop calling you it" I joke as the leopard lunges from the ceiling towards me. I leap over him but the crafty cat grabs hold of my leg and throws me down onto the floor. I gasp loudly from the pain but endure it as I place both of my hands on the ground behind me. Using my hands, I push my self off the ground and perform a back flip (kicking the leopard in the face as a bonus) and then land on my feet. The large leopard snarls and strikes forward once more with his fists in an attempt to sink his claws into me again. Okay, I've got to keep dodging then…
Left, right, left, right, jump, right, left, duck, left and…
As I duck once more away from the blow, the leopard kicks forward with full force, hitting me right in the chin and sending me backwards, out of another window. What is it with me and windows today? I might as well stop using doors at this rate. Quickly, I stretch out a hand (which gains a grip on the roof of the office building), allowing me to swing around and land on the open roof top, which we had started the fight on. The leopard follows me, leaping out of a window and landing in a crouched position on the roof of the building.
"Not bad kitty" I pant to myself, already worn out from the long fight. The leopard man smiles once more and laughs. I promptly launch forward another rubber fist, which hits the leopard square in the chest. The stranger laughs at the attack and licks his lips.
"Was that supposed to hurt?" He mocks with barred fangs.
"Oh trust me" I retort with a smirk "When it hurts…you'll know…" To be honest though, that was supposed to hurt. Is this guy made of iron or something? As much as I'd like to think I'm making progress, I can tell that I'm not making that much of a dent in this guy. We've been fighting for what feels like hours now and it doesn't seem that any of my attacks really did anything to him. The leopard man smiles widely as he charges forward once more. My body feels so numb right now that I'm not sure I can dodge…so I do the next best thing…
I stretch my leg as far back as it can go and I fling it forwards at the Leopard. He jumps over it and before I can properly react, his large paw is grasping my throat. I choke slightly as his grip around my neck tightens. The leopard chuckles loudly at my misfortune and flings me to the floor once more. Before I can move, I feel another set of claws sink into my chest and I scream in pain. This is too much. It hurts. My whole body is covered in bruises and scratches…I've…I've gotta fight back…somehow. I lash out a kick with all my might, which sends the leopard man flying into the sky. The leopard does manage to gain a hold of himself though and lands on the roof of the office building opposite. I heave myself to my feet, staggering around limply and panting like crazy. I'm too tired right now. I'm just too out of it. I've been swinging round the city following police cars, following Arlong's car for who knows how long…and now, I'm fighting tall, dark and gruesome over there…This is all just too much…I can't keep going like this. I can feel my heart beating even faster than usual and my muscles are aching so much. I can barely register anything around me. It's only the laughing of the leopard guy that makes me focus again.
"Face it kid!" The large beast taunts from above me "You're out of your league! You're like a monkey jumping from tree to tree, thinking you're something special..." I barely dodge his fist as the leopard guy leaps down at me. I feel the cold chill on the side of my cheek as one of his claws cuts me slightly. I dodge to the left and end up clutching a nearby wall for support "and then there's me" he continues confidently "I'm the leopard, the head of the food chain and your main predator" Suddenly, the man starts to chuckle, his body shaking with each laughter "Hey kid, you said I needed a name right? I think I've got one"
"Oh...you're going…with Kitty…like I suggested then?" I joke in-between pants, ignoring the pain I can feel in the right side of my body. The leopard ignores me and smiles.
"No...Predator...that's me! I'M THE PREDATOR!" He snarls as he roars loudly into the sky. I shudder at the newly named 'Predator's' loud announcement and I feel my knees buckles underneath my own weight. I've done too much…need to fight…or run…run far and fast and just get out of here…
This is the first time I've ever said this since I became the Scarlet Wind…but…this is a fight that I just can't win right now. I'm too worn out…I guess all those sleepless nights of patrolling the streets are coming back to haunt me now…
I rapidly glanced both left and right, looking for a way to escape…a way to run…As I glance around, I notice an alley to the right. Quickly, I run in that direction in an attempt to get away but as I move, Predator's claws reach out and impale me in my left arm. I scream loudly as the leopard man pulls me back into his grip, once more slashing at my chest with his claws.
"You're not thinking of running away now, are you kid?" he asks with a toothy grin as he flings me towards the already smashed window into the office. The remaining glass shatters as I fall to the floor, cuts and bruises all over my body. It feels so bad...so much pain…
Slowly, I try to stand up but I end up falling back down to the floor. My body's just aching…my body's going numb...losing…focus…conscience…
I awake slightly as Predator kicks me roughly in the stomach. I soar into the wall opposite and land with a thud on the floor…can't move…so much pain…it hurts so much…I can feel the blood leaking out of my mouth as I pant. My head is banging like someone's using it as a bongo. I look upwards…my eyes barely focusing…Standing above me is a gigantic looming figure.
"Aw…don't go fading on me now kiddo…" a suave voice calls to me "I'm far from done…" I try to reply but all I can manage is a mumbled gurgle as my head falls forward.
I'm tired…I need to sleep…so much pain…the aching….the bleeding…make it stop…
The leopard above me chuckles loudly.
"Aw, you wanna sleep kiddo?" I groan loudly as I receive another kick to the ribs, causing me to fall sideways to the floor "well then…I'll have to thank you for getting me these powers kid. If it hadn't been for you, Vegapunk would never have given me these amazing abilities…"
V-v-vegapunk?…w-who…who's he?
The leopard grins and sinks his sharp claws into the wall behind me.
"I guess you could say they're so good…that they bring down the house"
With that finally statement, Predator heaves at the wall and the structure starts to crack. I can hear all around me the sound of crumbling and breaking, but I'm too tired…my mind can't process it…
Predator leaps out of the window and looks back at me with a smile.
"Goodbye…Scarlet Wind…" he calls happily, before departing into the city. As he leaves, I can feel parts of plaster falling onto me…then bricks…then who knows what…All I can truly focus on is the large burning pain in body…I want it to end so badly…I look up at the fading light one last time…my eyes twitch slightly…and then…
That's when I finally lost consciousness…
To be continued in Chapter 1: Predators Act 3
…Admit it…I'm pure evil when it comes to cliff hangers…
I'm taking a little break with the story, though I should update it as soon as I've finished all the homework I need to do AND a lot of the one-shot requests are out of the way…(dodges another spear) and YES, I will do more on Search The Wind as soon as I can…
Until then, I'm Shadowonthewall6…and I love my ellipsis…
Please review. Positive criticism is welcome