Chapter One: A New Beginning
A soft breeze whispers through the air, like a long forgotten prayer. waves crashing fore and aft, adding to the unholy crescendo. The see hissed and howled, as if acted upon by some unseen hand.
Deep below, in the bowels of the ship, slept a small girl. A girl whom it seemed was unperturbed by the plight of the ship, no, quite the opposite, to all intents and purposes she to all appearances, was having the most heavenly, beatific, blissful sleep she had ever had in her life. That was until a loud, crashing sound split through the air, its thunderous sound was unmistakable. The ship creaked and groaned, as if it were a great whale crying out in pain.
Neo shot up from her bunk! Scampering to her feet, her first instinct was to alert the captain, however, just as quickly as the noise began, it ceased. Neo let out a sigh of relief, "Phew! I was actually scared for a second the-" Neo thought, before being cut off by the unmistakable, visceral boom of a cannon. Only one problem… it hadn't come from their ship.
Before Neo even had a chance to process this, there was a loud crash as the ship quickly and violently listed to port, the force of this, knocking the tiny terror across the room, before the ship was able to right itself.
"All hands on deck! Ready the cannons! We are under attack!" Captain Belladonna's voice rang through the ship.
Without thinking, Neo swallowed her fear. Climbing to her feet, she grabbed her gun and made her way on deck, and the moment she did, her heart sank. Waiting for her, was a group of, presumably pirates, guns drawn, and pointed right at her…
"Hello Ice Cream! Today just isn't your lucky day, is it?" Their captain, a tall, lanky man with bright orange hair, piercing, dark green eyes, and a face impossible to read, jeered, grinning a playful, mischievous grin save for now. For now, she could gleam one word to describe it, confidence.
Taken aback, Neo hesitated only a moment before heaving her weapon, leveling it squarely at Roman, she gave a small smirk.
Roman seemed taken aback by this, so much so that it took him a full two seconds to come up with a "witty" retort.
"You got spirit, I'll give you that! But here's the deal, you won't pull that trigger, I can see it in your eyes! You're not a kille-" Roman began, only to be interrupted by the sound of the girl's gun going off, followed by the sound of a lead grapeshot whizzing by his head, and hitting the mast of the ship.
"Guess I was wrong, you do have it in you." He mused, a mocking smile threatening to cross his face, "You just happen to be the worst shot in the world!"
Neo laid there, wincing in pain, she slowly climbed to her feet, rubbing her now sore read end. "That sucker kicks harder than I thought!" She thinks to herself as she looks back at Roman, giving him a look that seemed to convey, 'I meant to do that! That was a warning shot!'
At this, Roman couldn't take it anymore, the sheer level of unearned smugness, confidence and sass coming from this tiny girl was too much. Roman began to laugh uncontrollably.
"Where the bloody hell is all this confidence coming from!? That's a good one! Hadn't heard something that funny in years! Think I might keep this one!" Roman said once he got his laughing under control.
Pouting, Neo gives a look that says, 'I'm serious! Stop laughing!' This, however, had the opposite effect, as he seemed to find that face even more hilarious.
Twas as soon as Torchwick began to chortle, his amused tone was cut in twain by a shot of lead through his hat. Twirling upon his heels, before him was the captain of this fine booty he wished to claim, and his scurvy merchant dogs stood behind him. A buccaneer of many battles, the red haired scallywag knew a brawl be brewing.
"Send them packing, men!" Captain Ghira Belladonna bellowed, his blade raised as his men roared.
The pirates roared back as both sides drew their blades and charged. When the two sides met, loud clangs could be heard from the clashes of blades. The battle was on.
At the center of the fray was where the massive form of Captain Ghira Belladonna was met by the tall, lanky form of the pirate captain Roman Torchwick. Ghira had a glare on his face as he and a cocky Roman readied their weapons. Roman's weapon of choice was a scimitar, a heavier, but thinner blade with longer reach. Ghira's weapons of choice were a pair of metal gauntlets each with a set of nine inch, razor sharp steel claws coming out of the fingertips.
"Alright, Captain Kitty Cat! Let's see how your bladework is!" Roman called out, going for a stab at the massive cat faunus.
However, Ghira parried the attempt at his life. Roman then went for a slashing stab with his blade. Ghira, moving quickly as the wind, slashed the scimitar blade aside with his left hand's set of claws before slashing at the pirate captain with the right. Dodging aside, Roman barely avoided getting his face sliced open as one of the behemoth's claws cut off the tip of the rim of his fine feathered hat. Lashing out with his blade, and with righteous indignation, Roman went for a slash at Ghira's face that Ghira quickly deflected with a simple flourish and slashed at Roman's wrist. Back shuffling to avoid getting his hand cut off, Roman tapped Ghira's claws with his blade with a smirk on his face.
"Okay, not bad. But how's your footwork, you Critter? I step here…" Roman cockily said, moving to the side and lashing out with a quick stab from his blade.
However, Ghira moved in the opposite direction to keep Roman in his line of sight as he deflected the stab. Going for a slash, Roman stepped in towards Ghira only for the huge cat faunus to block with his claws. Knocking the blade aside with contemptuous ease, Ghira slashed out with his razor sharp claws only for Roman to hop aside to avoid being cut. Hopping to the other side, Ghira went with an overhead rake of his claws down towards Roman's head, forcing the pirate captain to block with his sword and slide the metal claws to the side.
"Nice footwork. For a Stray." Roman mockingly praised the faunus captain as the two continued to circle each other like sharks.
"Be careful with your words, pirate. You've clearly never seen what happens when you anger a Stray before…" Ghira snarled coldly, his eyes boring into Roman.
"By all means, show me…" Roman teasingly replied, going in for a light slash with his blade.
Ghira parried the slash as Roman tauntingly ran his blade along the razor's edge of the claws, light sparks dancing along the edges of the bladed claws. Swiping the blade away, Ghira slashed at Roman's face only for the pirate to lean back, narrowly avoiding getting his face slashed open. Ghira slashed again at Roman's midsection as Roman just barely brought his blade up to parry. Roman then back shuffled as Ghira unleashed a barrage of six claw slashes, dodging each one while backing up. With his ever present smirk on his face, Roman held his blade up at the ready.
Meanwhile, Neo was in a clash of blades with a much taller woman with shoulder length black hair and fiery orange eyes. A very one sided clash, unfit for a lady of good breeding. The tiny girl stabbed at the woman with a rapier as long as she was tall, having trouble properly using the blade. The woman's glowing hot, molten glass swords, vaguely in the shape of cutlasses, were almost a blur to the girl as the fiery eyed woman easily deflected her stabs and slashed at her, forcing the ice cream girl on the defensive.
Much to the girl's frustration, the young woman seemed amused fighting her. The woman easily deflected a stab from the girl before slashing with her other blade. The girl barely brought her blade up to block and push the blade away. The woman then cockily slid her other blade along the rapier's blade, a scratching clang heard as the glass cutlass slid along the metal of the rapier. Knocking away the glass sword in frustration, Neo went for a stab only for the woman to easily deflect it and slash at her midsection, knocking Neo back as she barely blocked the slash.
It was at that moment that the small girl heard something slide along the deck of the ship. Looking down as subtly as she could, she saw a flintlock pistol on the deck. Reaching down as quickly as she could, the ice cream girl picked the flintlock up, aimed it at the woman, and prepared to fire. However, before she could, the woman swiftly cut the barrel off of the gun, the barrel falling off and hitting the deck with a resounding set of clangs as Neo looked down at her now ruined weapon in fear.
Neo looked up at the woman with a look that said it all. 'Uh-oh…'
The woman smirked at the fearful look the little ice cream girl gave her. "'Uh-oh', indeed." The woman replied as she prepared to bring her blade down on the girl.
However, Roman's voice calling out made her stop. "Cinder, you idiot! What are you doing!? If you use those, you'll set the ship on fire, you'll kill us all!" Her captain's voice yelled at her from his duel with Captain Belladonna.
The momentary distraction gave Neo an opening she desperately needed. Dropping the ruined flintlock, the tiny girl scurried away like a terrified rat desperately attempting to escape a lion. Much to Cinder's frustration, as she had been enjoying herself at that moment.
Scurrying off, Neo tried desperately to get away from the fiery contemptuous. Backing up against an open barrel, she looked back at it and got an idea. Climbing up, the ice cream girl hopped into the barrel to hide, peeking out through a hole to watch the battle unfold.
Back with Roman and Ghira, the colossal cat faunus had Roman on the back foot. Using his superior size and strength, as well as his surprising speed, to his advantage, the cat faunus was slowly pushing Roman back. Realizing things didn't look good for the scallywag, Roman knew he was, if only barely, outmatched when factoring in more than just skill. And as the old saying goes: When outmatched, cheat.
Pulling out one of his flintlocks, Roman took aim at one of Ghira's feet and fired. Caught off guard by the shot to his foot, Ghira bit back a yelp of pain and hopped back a bit. Unfortunately, this left him open to a blow from Roman. Holstering his flintlock, Roman pulled out another as he began slashing and stabbing at Ghira, forcing him to back shuffle as the pirate shot him in the gut. Crying out in pain, Ghira began backing up more as Roman began hammering him with heavy slashes with his scimitar.
Hammering Ghira with blow after heavy blow, Roman smirked as Ghira tried desperately to fight through the pain to defend himself. However, whenever Ghira began to recover, Roman would pull out another flintlock and shoot him, forcing him off balance with the pain and continuing his assault. Managing to knock Ghira off of his feet, Roman slashed down as Ghira raised his claws to defend himself. However, much to the faunus captain's shock, the scimitar blade broke his claws off, leaving him defenseless.
"It appears my stray friend of a cur, that you have been most unfortunately disarmed." Roman cackled with infectious glee, cackling howls erupting from his scurvious sea wolves in agreement.
"I swear upon St. George's name that you will face the wrath of the sword of justice for your crimes!" Ghira roared, his men being slowly boxed in.
"Then please, good captain my captain, assist me in reducing my list of offenses to your saint's eyes by kindly entering your side craft in a neat and orderly fashion. We would not want to make your sailors' efforts in polishing this fine deck to go to waste." The pirate answered, motioning the direction with a simple flick of his broad, curved blade.
With their hopes surrounded and about to be brought to a grisly quarter, the men of the good ship Mistrali Gull laid down their arms to the fierce sea wolves. One by one, every man and faunus crewmen was crammed into the lifeboats as so much chattel to market. Then one by one the boats hit the waves, as the wind moved the good ship afloat and on to a new life. A life that is simple as plunder and rapine. Our red headed victor strutted across the deck, like only a self important peacock on parade could. A truly sad sight for all to see, if they didn't have every reason to keep their kike holes shut.
"Now that we have this wretched piece of tinder, what do we do now oh captain?" The tall, curvaceous and mildly warm woman asked, with all the bemused enthusiasm as a strumpet waiting in line.
"Be careful, my dear Cinder. We would not want our hard earned booty to end up like your unfortunate rear. We have to safeguard our new investment with a level mindedness only my genius can provide." Roman answered, jumping on top of a worthwhile barrel.
"Where to, captain!?" The man at the helm roared above the waves and winds.
"Not to Tortuga, my friend! Too many debts to booze and hoes over there! Perhaps to Red Men's Cove, men! Plenty of fine company to regale with this great tale we have created today! Hoist sails and full speed, men!" Roman roared, with the level of voice only a captain, even if an infamous and piratical one, could produce.
Inside the confines of her metal ringed hidey hole, Neo fretted for her very safety. Now surrounded by booty loving (In more than one way), blood thirsty, and less than hygienic crewmen. They didn't even polish their swords properly, the curs. Looking out the only hole that she can find in the ill prepared port barrel, she watched the new captain of the ship. Curiously the captain stopped his strutting, and stood roughly at attention. Then out of the corner of his mediocre, only about a two, jawline could a smile be seen.
"Now then, my delightful little single scoop. To what shall we do with you?" The red headed tool asked, with a trickster's mug, looked squarely into the brown eye of the poor merchant princess, and directly into her very soul.