Chapter 8 – A Taste of the Pirate Life

The tavern was absolutely silent, except for the quiet whimpers of the staff that were hiding behind the counter. Tension was palpable and, for a second, Skyler thought that they would all be at this standstill for a while.

That was until she heard a click of the tongue from Kidd and, as if it were a silent order, Killer kicked a table towards the line of marines, letting loose absolute chaos inside the building. There were shouts everywhere, pirates climbing over the tables to get to the marines, marines shouting orders and readying their muskets. The pirates with ranged weapons staying behind, to shoot at the marines while the marines shot back.

Skyler snaked out of Kidd's grasp and was quick to push a table down so she could use it as a defensive wall. Adrenaline was rushing through her body, making her hands a bit shaky.

"What are you doing!?" Kidd roared at her, that signature grin on his face as he pulled his flintlock gun out of his bandolier and pointed towards the marines, firing a few shots.

"Are you kidding!? They are shooting at us! Do you really expect me to just jump in!?" Skyler was practically shrieking at him, her hands over her ears to try and dampen the noise of the weapons being fired.

"But this is what you trained for!" Kidd put away his gun and leaned down, towering over her small frame that was curled on the ground. "This is your chance, dumbass! Get up and do something, would ya?" He took hold of her arm with a bit more force, making her wince.

That flinch was reflex of the chaos going around her, a mixture of all the racket and so much movement happening in her peripherals. In addition to that, her mind was still reeling from the threat he had made earlier. Her body did not have time to come down from the adrenaline that had rushed at that moment, and now, with all the confusion and threat to her wellbeing, there was just more adrenaline in her system that before.

Skyler caught a glimpse of a shiny thing coming behind Kidd and noticed that it was a marine that was dashing his way, sword in hand, ready to slash at the captain.

A part of her wanted to hold back, let him get wounded, maybe killed. What he had told her was not an idle threat. She did not know what he was fully capable of but he had not shown to be a compassionate person, despite the playful demeanour he had treated her for the time she had been on the ship. Another part of her told her to move because he was her only shot at finding a way back home. Moving around, getting to meet other people, gather as much reconnaissance as she could to find a way back, and he was the key to get there.

She used his arm as leverage, pushing herself up and over his side, throwing a strong kick to the marine's head, the blade grazing her leg by a hair. There was an unpleasant cracking sound that reached her ears and she was sure she had broken something on the marine's face.

Much to her dismay, she landed on the other side of the table, right on the frontline. She was still a bit of a ways away from where the line of marines were but she felt she had her face glued to the muskets that were pointed her way, staring down the barrel of the guns. She could smell the burnt gunpowder mixed with the metallic smell of blood that was painted and splattered all over the floor and walls of the bar. What she had ingested did a flip in her stomach and threatened to come out but she pushed it back down, the bile burning her throat.

An arm wrapped around her shoulders and she felt her back against Kidd's fur coat, feeling the spikes it had on its shoulders, cold against her face. Skyler was not registering what was happening fully, her mind was running at full speed, carving in her memory images of the bodies of soldiers that littered the floor, skulls completely blown off from the shots that were fired from the pirates. She could see a detached limb in a corner, shouts invading her head. Kidd had been talking to her, close to her ear, but she couldn't make sense of what was being said besides the first word he had whispered to her.

"Good." His hot breath against her ear seemed to only dull her senses, the pandemonium becoming white noise around her. Her vision started to funnel, the corners turning dark but she would not allow herself to lose conscious now. She dared to take a deep breath but the combination of smells only made the bile come back up to her mouth.

She swallowed hard and pushed whatever she was feeling aside for the moment. Her priority now was to survive and get out of that bar, to the safety of the ship. At least she hoped the ship was still a safe space for her. She grabbed Kidd's arm and pushed it aside, making space for her to leave his grasp and took his knife from the bandolier across his chest, walking towards the marines. Luckily they had dropped the muskets since they took time to reload and were now holding their swords. Skyler wouldn't run the risk of being shot which would be problematic to heal. A few cuts were easier to deal with.

As she strode forward, she could hear Kidd's laughter from the background but her main focus and target was clearing a path to that exit door. She moved skilfully in between the marines, dodging whenever she could and disabling those that stood in front of her. Skyler was thankful for the adrenaline, whatever damage she was receiving, punches, slashes, the pain was diminished because of it but exhaustion was slowly catching up to her.

Not now…

As she rushed forward, her arms were moving deftly trying to push away soldiers from her path but, holding on to Kidd's knife, she felt a quelch as the blade dug deep into a marine's stomach. She felt moisture on her face, unsure if it was her blood of the blood that had splashed from the man's wound and she felt something inside her snap. Something in her chest just snapped and she came to a full stop as she felt a sob choke in her throat, her eyes stopping at the lifeless body of the soldier on the floor. She felt herself starting to shake but she steeled herself again.

Not now…

Suddenly, she felt a tug at the back of her shirt, choking her and pulling her down to the floor. Her back hit the hard surface, taking her breath away and, looking up, she saw a blade coming down towards her head. She forced her body to move but it wasn't responding as fast as she wanted it to.

Before the blade could take her to the afterlife, she heard metal clashing and, opening her eyes she saw Quincy blocking the blade with her own musket and kicking the marine away.

"Come on, sweetie." She was speaking a bit louder so she could be heard and reached out to help Skyler up. Quincy wrapped her arm around Skyler's waist and help her continue forward, tossing aside her musket and substituting for a flintlock gun, shooting whoever was in front of them. "You are doing so good! It's just a bit longer, okay?"

Even if she was saying those words automatically, they were somewhat comforting, helping Skyler relax a little bit but not enough that she would lose sight of her goal. Skyler stepped off to the side, away from Quincy, and she held Kidd's knife tighter and continued to the door of the bar.

She could see the light seeping from the edges and finally opened them, letting the chill breeze cool her down, taking away the horrid smell that was inside the tavern.

Her relief was short lived when she found herself face to face with even more marine soldiers. She mentally cursed as she finally started to feel the exhaustion catching up to her, the muscles on her thighs starting to spasm.

Luckily, before she could voice her frustration, all the weapons the marines were holding started to float up in the air and towards the direction of the tavern. At the entrance, Kidd was hoarding all the metallic objects above him, forming a gigantic sphere out of those weapons.

"Get ready to run." Quincy pointed out, her hand finding Skyler's own hand, trying to give her a bit more support.

"Who the fuck told you we were here!?" Kidd roared at the marines, before hurling the metal sphere towards the wall of soldiers, scattering them all.

This was enough of an opening for Skyler to run towards the docks where the ship was. Quincy was holding her hand, pushing her forward and still repeating motivational words, more to keep Skyler in check and conscious.

All the other pirates took the opportunity to do the same, giving their thanks to their captain. Kidd just nodded at them, his smile never fading away as he continuously brought back the metal objects and bashed them again towards the marines, making sure to keep an opening for his crew to go through. Of course, he was sure he wouldn't be left alone. Killer, Heat and Wire were always the last ones to leave, making sure that their captain was safe and arrived at the ship alongside them.

They were the ones Kidd had entrusted to care for the crew and they, in turn, care for their captain, even if it was a show of tough love most of the time. He was rash at making decisions, hot headed, but he knew his crew, especially his first mate, was always there to temper his disposition.

The group made quick work of the marines before setting off, following where their crew had headed towards. Kidd would have to come up with some plan for them to have enough time for the log pose to set and keep his crew safe for that time.

They were almost at the ship, the pirates rushing to climb up to the safety of the vessel, helping others inside as well and tending to the injured on deck.

"Kidd, we need to set sail for now and then find a place to hide the ship." Killer informed his captain that nodded at him.

"How long does the log pose need?" The captain asked but his eyes were scurrying the docks, trying to find Skyler but she was nowhere so he decided to go up to the ship, Killer, Wire and Heat following close behind.

"Twelve hours and we can be off. I'll have to check the charts but I think it's a direct trip to Sabaody from here if we don't stray or get caught in a storm." Killer replied and, same as Kidd, was looking everywhere for Skyler until he set eyes on the woman in question. She was leaned over the rail of the ship, vomiting whatever she had in her stomach. Quincy was next to her, rubbing her back, a worried look to her.

"Seriously?" Kidd mumbled and walked towards the woman. Killer was going to stop him but the captain had already stormed off towards her. Quincy stepped forward, blocking his path from Skyler. "What the fuck!?"

"Not now, captain. Please." Her voice was firm, determined to push him away if need be. "Give her time." She looked behind her captain, towards where Heat, Killer and Wire were standing and she waved at them. The group rushed to her. "Heat, can you please check on her? She had a pretty hard fall and I don't know about her cuts but she has a few."

Heat nodded and took a quick look over Skyler noting a few shallow cuts on her torso and arms but there was a bad bleeding coming from her forehead that he'd have to check if it wasn't as bad as it looked.

"Come on." Heat placed a hand on her back, gently pushing her towards the stairs that led to the small room that was the sick bay for the ship.

Whatever rush Kidd had felt before was gone after seeing her state. Not only was she deplorable, vomiting her guts out, but she had a defeated look about her. Despite what she had done at the bar, having fought and opened a path for everyone to leave, Skyler felt defeated and Kidd had no idea what to say or do about it.

"Get ready to set sail! We'll have to lose those assholes!" Kidd shouted at his men and all started moving as cogs in a well-oiled machine.

He didn't have time to dwell on the conflicting feelings he had bottled inside at the moment. First he'd have to assure that his crew was safe and check how many wounded there were. The downside of being a captain was that he didn't have much time to do a self-check.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

A/N:

Another chapter done and this one took a bit longer than the others. This is where I start to change quite a few things in the story compared to the original. From this point on it'll be different and now its own thing.

I'll still continue to be careful with my writing and proofread everything just to make sure this doesn't get released with errors and is understandable. I appreciate the support and hope you'll keep having fun with reading this work.