Serious: The Aurora Pirates Part 4: An Island Within an Island

Heiki quickly ordered Karasu to lick the man, hoping that it would hit. "You're getting really rusty," Karasu laughed. The girl ignored the scarf, thinking how she would dip the scarf in sea water after this.

Aya blinked in surprise, before taking the two guns. Great. Now she had six guns, two too many for her tastes. Still, she nodded curtly at the boy and sped off deeper into the cave.

When she finally spotted someone, it was her Captain - alone...?

...What were those dark shadows, flickering and dancing around him...?

"Captain," she murmured quietly in acknowledgment, signaling her arrival. She took out her four guns and deposited the two other that the boy had given her, and loaded them in preparation.

Frog Dragon

"It doesn't matter!" the man said as he reached back towards his chest as quickly as possible, bringing out one of his swords into reality. As he did this, a small string, which was wrapped around his finger, tightened and pulled back on the fuma shuriken, which it was also tied to, making the weapon come spinning at the back of Kaori's head. Without changing his expression, or even looking to see if the weapon was coming back, the man grabbed his sword and ran forward, swinging it at the spear. "Whatever the odds, I will not give up!"
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
GoreFish

"Right..." Makino nodded. She pulled herself back against a wall and closed her eyes. She was frustrated. She didn't even have enough energy to make the ground swallow her up. Not only that, but her opponent didn't even attack her once she was weakened. How pathetic she must look right now.
(At the end of your tunnel should be a door or something. These tunnels are all connected in some way or anther, so you should be able to catch up with the others. Just make something up.)
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ugitzu

The woman tried to move back, but the pain in from her stomach made her fall back down on her knees. She saw the blade coming and then...
(I honestly don't know where you're aiming, but she's down and so I'll leave her fate up to you.)
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
naneun1

The man had nowhere to go and besides that, he didn't even see the scarf moving in until he felt something lick him.
(Like I did in Pyriss's situation, I'll leave this guy's fate up to you.)
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
coffeelatte

(You can't have found James that easily. Let me explain: At the end of the tunnel that you are traveling along is a metal door. This door is the reason the boy gave Aya those guns, so that she could blow it up with them. On the other side of the door is a room that has a 'throne' in the center. On the supposed throne is an old man, who is hooked up to medical equipment. In one corner of the room is a large, wooden door that leads to where James is fighting. I'll just go ahead and edit this post to fit whatever you edit yours into. I probably should have been doing that already. Just didn't think about it before.)
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
James D. Cook

James felt himself hit something soft, but then something hard. He felt the thing behind him. It was the curtain he had seen before coming into this room. He grasped the curtain, pulling himself to his feet with it and then he sliced it in half. Light spilled in through the now half exposed curtain. James spun around. He could clearly see Hikaru now, but the other man was covered in black, swirling...shadows? It was hard to tell, but whatever it was was not adding any volume onto Hikaru's body. He merely looked like a silhouette.

"What did you...." James began to say.

"This is my sword's ultimate power," Hikaru explained. "It covers me in a cloak of shadow!"

"Whatever," James shrugged. "I'll deal with it, no problem!" He shot forward and swung both of his swords. "Two Sword Style: Gale Force!" He disappeared and then reappeared on the other side of Hikaru. Suddenly a blast of wind struck Hikaru's chest, blowing him back. He crashed into the wall and fell to the floor. "Gotcha," James said, a smirk appearing on his face.

Hikaru laughed. He stood up. There was no damage from where James had hit him.

"What-" James began. Hikaru disappeared and then appeared in front of James. James was more prepared this time and he jumped back to avoid Hikaru, but then several of the shadows on Hikaru's body shot out, grabbing James and pulling him in. Hikaru raised his sword lazily and waited for James to be impaled upon it.

((O.O Oh, oops. My bad. Lotsa details, *sheepish laugh* I can just edit my post if you want))

(OOC: Go ahead and once you are done I will do any necessary edits to fit your changes.)

((OOC: Oh wait, what? Is there anything I can change so you DON'T have to make edits? ^^''))

(that is the point, Pyriss's hand movements are very fast, she can slice an opponents nerves if she gets close enough, without touching their limbs or muscles. The ability is like a two post move, the start up,the move, and the opponent is paralyzed. If the opponent sees it in time they can dodge it, but if they cannot stop it or don't see it in time then they are doomed!)

The blade of the knife on the claw shined. As she retracted her right arm. She instead extended her left arm, which had the knife in hand. "Shadow Paralysis!", Pryiss yelled as she attacked her opponent multiple times, she didn't slash her muscles, just her nerves. Stopping all brain activity that is free willed. (meaning her heart is still pumping) The move should paralyze her, having her unable to move. Pyriss looked at the woman bleeding, as her wrist snapped.

"Ahh! Pyriss screamed as she gripped her right wrist with her left hand.

The ligament on her right hand has been twisted. She also felt the pain of the knife in her shoulder when she bent down. She also felt the revived pain of her right foot. Though, Pyriss still took out some leather and placed the leather around the woman's flesh wound.

Pyriss then said,"I don't like helping people, but I guess you can't do anything for a while, seeing as you're hurt. All right spill it. What is this island and why are you guys so cautious on protecting it?"

(OOC: It depends. If you still plan on meeting up with James then I probably would not have to edit what I wrote unless Aya came in part way through the battle. Just make a decision. It's not a big deal for me to edit a little bit.)

Henry looked after Jake limping along the tunnel, and for one second, he asked himself if he should help him.
No, he wouldn't. It'd hurt his pride, and most likely Jakes too, even though he wasn't sure of that. Instead, he sat down, leaning against the wall opposite from the woman. That girl must feel so pathetic right now...
"Don't worry..." He whispered, more to himself than to her, since she was asleep.
"He's always like that..."
Maybe his words'd reach her somehow in her dreams.

Jake used one hand to support himself on the wall of the tunnel. What use he'd be to anyone in this state, he didn't know. But he knew he had to get there.
He looked up and stopped abrubtly when he saw he was about to walk into a door.
Curious. What was a door doing here. He frowned and opened it, just to fall right through one second later.
He looked up, still lying on the floor.
"Oh, hey Pyriss."
Oooh, this looked interesting. Someone was about to tell why he was here. He'd love to know, since to him, it looked like he just fell down a hole and random peole started attacking him.

Ugitzu and GoreFish

The woman opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Jake who fell through a door, which was hidden on this side. She groaned. Apparently one of her other comrades had been defeated as well if this guy was here.

"Very well." Kaori ducked under the shuriken and ran at the tattooed man. Just as the man was attacking, he stopped and took the attack with his chest. "STAY!" He made his vest immovable, taking the hit straight on and staying unharmed. Then, he swiftly struck his spear at the man's abdomen. This had been a foregone conclusion from the beginning...

Heiki grinned as Karasu finally hit his target. She pulled back as the an started hallucinating. To the girl, it looked like the man was just jumping around, but to him, he was seeing large boulders falling around him. She took this opportunity to kick the man into the wall, burying him under real rocks as the soil around him loosened. Quickly, she continued down the tunnel.

Pyriss looked to see someone falling down from a wall right next to Pyriss. This tunnel was odd to Pyriss. First an intricate net of wire, then Jake falling from a wall. Pryiss smiled. She always possessed a kind spirit when Jake was around. Jake was the least serious and merciless of the group. He was the kind of person that would make you reveal your kind side.

Pyriss asked,"Hey Jake, did anyone try to kill you too? It seems, that the security on this island is so lethal. This woman easily has the ability of a marine captain."

((I'll just leave my post, and don't edit. Just make it seem like he doesn't even realize she's there. I'll have her sit still ^^))

Jake sat up and nodded furiously.
"Yeah, I fought a lady with control over the earth! That was scary! But hey, she turned out to be nice, so it was okay. How are you doing?"
He hit his forhead in realisation.
"Sorry! I interrupted you guys! And I'd so like to hear what this is about."

Frog Dragon

The man caught his shuriken in his free hand as he did his slash. Kaori blocked his sword swing with his cloak, and then thrust his spear at the man's chest. The man had no time to block the blow, so he did the next best thing. He brought his other shield out into reality. He felt the spear hit his shield just as it appeared and it was driven back into his chest, knocking him down. He rolled back with the blow, but stayed in a crouching position when he came back up. He was winded, but at least he did have a spear sticking in his gut.

"Ow," he muttered. Then he looked up at Kaori. "I may as well just talk now. At this rate, I'm just going to run myself out of weapons and then I would be forced to retreat and I'm not going far like this."
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
naneun1

The man came back to his right mind a moment later, but he decided to stay down. No point in continuing a pointless battle. He knew he couldn't win with these injuries.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
coffeelatte

(OOC: Sure. Okay.)
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ugitzu and GoreFish

The woman sighed. "Here's the deal. A guy calling himself Yami went around gathering followers. He had this huge army of pirates and mercenaries under his command. I was one of those people. He then began taking over different islands in the North Blue starting with the one we're standing on right now. He declared this is main base of operations and began moving his troops outward, taking over nearby islands. He quickly became a problem that the World Government couldn't ignore. And so they sent a fleet up to take him out. About ten days ago, Yami sent the bulk of his forces out from this island to attack the Marine forces, leaving just a few of us here to defend the island. We haven't heard from our allies since they left, but the Marines aren't exactly knocking on our doors yet so we assume that they are still fighting. Does you understand now?"
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
James D. Cook

James struggled in the grip of the shadows, but to no avail. He just couldn't break free! "Please...Kazeshini...I didn't want to do this, but...please, I'm going to die!" James thought. "Give...me...strength!" The shadows exploded, blown away by the winds that James had just called down. Wind gathered along the sword blade, lengthening it and making it bigger all around. The winds also ran up James's arm, covering it like armor.

"YES!" Hikaru shouted. "This is the power I was waiting for!"

"You want it?" James said, angrily. "Then you can have it." He swung Kazeshini and released a powerful blade of wind at Hikaru. Hikaru just stood there and took the blow. Not surprisingly, it didn't damage him at all.

"Nothing works against me in this form," Hikaru said. The shadows once more shot out, trying to wrap around the arm that held Kazeshini. "Now give me that blade!" As the shadows grabbed James's arm, they were blown off. Hikaru frowned. Apparently the wind was protecting James's arm.

"It looks like I can't cut you," James said. "But what about piercing?" He stabbed Kazeshini at Hikaru. "Singe Sword Style: Thunder Crash!" A blast of wind pummeled Hikaru in his chest and blew him into the wall behind him. This time, it took him a moment to stand back up. It was obvious that he was in pain. James grinned. "It looks like you're not all powerful while in that form. And now I can match you, blow for blow. If you really want this sword then you'd better step up your game a little."

Hikaru glared hatefully at James. "Fine. I didn't want to do this, but now you've pushed me to far." He raised Kageoni above his head. "Absolute Darkness!" He slammed the sword down point first into the ground and shadows began to creep from the blade out to cover the whole room. When it reached the wall, it began to climb upwards. Finally, the whole room was covered. "This is the end!" Hikaru said, triumphantly.

Pyriss overheard everything the woman was saying. She understood why they were defending the island. She responded,"I see.....been through that before...So this island is a base of operations. Hmm, that's interesting. Explains quite a bit. Explains why the earth girl and you attack me and Jake. So,I can call you pirates or what should I call you?" Pyriss was a little enlightened, the tunnel was very innovative. The secret island was very amazing. This place could pass off as a base.

Jake decided to leave this highly intellectual discussion to the female individuals present.
Instead, he took a closer look at his wound.
The bandage he had made out of part of his shirt was already soaked with blood. Not good. Even he could tell that much.
He wouldn't be able to fight as well like that. Hell, he wasn't even able to walk like this. Did they have a doctor on their crew?
"Hey, Pyriss. Do we have a doctor on our crew?"
This much about not interfering...
He threw the piece of now red cloth away and took what was left of his shirt to make a new bandage.

Pyriss took her attention off of the woman and answered Jake's question without looking at his wound,"Yeah of course, we had a doctor on our crew for about a week. Yeah her name's Heiki, she fixed my foot up a little before I got here. Why?"

Pyriss looked at Jake's wound.

"OH NO!, your bleeding. Yeah we have to get to Heiki. Though I can't move, the entire right side of my body, and this woman can't move either. Can you carry us Jake, plz, I'll lead you to where Heiki is. Oddly, I posses sharp senses able to find something in a snap. I think Heiki is still in the tunnel, but that's an assumption. I think we should go straight."

Pyriss insisted on Jake carrying her, the fishmen possessed more stamina than humans, Jake would be able to survive for a long time with a conflicting wound, but not Pyriss or the woman.

"Heiki's a doctor? Wow, I didn't know!"
He really needed to pay more attention to his crewmates...
He carefully stood up and took Pyriss up in his arms.
"You're really light, you know that? Now, which way?"

James D. Cook

The darkness covering the room suddenly reached out with shadowy tentacles, trying to grab James. He jumped back and swung his sword sending out another blade of wind, which cut through the majority of the shadows, but they simply fell to the floor and mixed in with the rest of the darkness again.

"Nice ability," James said, trying to distract Hikaru. "It looks like there's no way for me to escape this technique."

"It is very powerful," Hikaru said. It was apparent from his voice that he was smiling under all the shadows covering his body. "No one can leave this place unless I allow them too. It's the perfect death trap."

While Hikaru was talking James edged around to his side and then he struck, slashing Kazeshini three times to send three wind blades at Hikaru. The shadow man didn't even look at the blades, instead his darkness rose up, forming five walls in front of his body. The three blades cut through the first wall and then the second wall, but by the third they were to weak and dissipated.

"Your sword certainly has power," Hikaru said. "It will be an excellent addition to my collection, But it still doesn't compare to my own."

"He's too strong for my attacks," James realized. "I'm going to have to think of a way to break through that defense. From the way he fell from my attack that hit him, I think one good hit would be enough to take him down the rest of the way."

"You are correct." Kaori said flatly. "I would rather not kill you. This mystery intrigues me. " He held ready, but leaned on his spear. "What are you protecting? Why are you fighting us?" He asked the man.

"Straight! Straight! Then Left!Oh and bye woman, hope we can have a spar like this again sometime." Pyriss was now intent on finding Heiki. She looked down to see traces of human presence while Jake was holding her. She sensed a few individuals, a man with tattoos, the large man from earlier, the woman she just fought, the smaller boy from earlier, and another man she had never seen before. The presence of these people was confusing her. Who were these people?

(Sorry for taking so long to finish up. I wanted to get an attack approved first. Now, I think it's about time to finish up these battles/talks.)
Frog Dragon

"We're protecting that island back there," the man pointed over his shoulder back towards the island in the center of the lake behind him. "Our friends and families live over there. As for why we're fighting you, that much should be obvious. You're pirates, right?"
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
James D. Cook

"But how will I reach him?" James wondered. "Maybe that new attack I've been practicing. Yeah, that'll do it."

James pointed Kazeshini at Hikaru. "Single Sword Style: Aerial Lance!" A sudden wind lifted James off of his feet and shot him at Hikaru. Wind spread out from Kazeshini's tip like an umbrella, forming a barrier in front of James. Hikaru quickly brought up another wall of darkness, but as James struck it, his sword managed to push through it. The shadows were forced apart and the barrier of wind helped James enlarge the hole and then he pushed himself through the wall and kept going. Hikaru held up his sword to protect himself just in time to stop Kazeshini from hitting him. However, the force of James's strike blew Hikaru back a few feet. Taking advantage of this moment, James pulled Kazeshini back and then thrust it at Hikaru's chest. "Single Sword Style: Thunder Crash!" A powerful blast of wind struck Hikaru's chest like a sledgehammer and he hit the wall behind him, breaking a hole in it. For that moment, James could see that the shadows had been forced away from the spot where he had hit Hikaru, but before James could do anything about this, the shadows moved back into position, protecting Hikaru once more.

"I just need an opening," James thought. "If I can hit him hard enough, then I'll be able to take him out!" James jumped back and held up Crimson Rain horizontally in front of him. "Two Sword Style: Eye of the Hurricane."

Hikaru stood back up, shaking his head to clear it. He looked at James, who stood motionless in front of him. Something wasn't right. The pirate captain wasn't moving and the shadows were about to grab him. It didn't matter though, as soon as he was caught again, Hikaru would be able to finish him off. Hikaru took a step forward and...James vanished. "What...soru!" Hikaru thought, then he spied James out of the corner of his eye. James was standing directly beside him and he was swinging Kazeshini at point blank range. A blade of wind shot from the blade and slashed Hikaru, tearing the shadows away. Then James stabbed with Crimson Rain, which Hikaru now realized that James had been holding in position, ready to take him out. There was nothing Hikaru could do. Crimson Rain pierced his side and he cried out, falling to the ground.

James pulled his sword back out of Hikaru. He felt a shiver run up his arm, although he wasn't sure if it was coming from him or the sword in his hand. "Still as bloodthirsty as ever," he thought, looking down at the dripping blade.

"DIE YOU MONSTER!" Hikaru had managed to struggle back to his feet and was bringing his blade down on James's unprotected back. James whirled around and swing Kazeshini with all his might. It connected with Kageoni and sliced through the other blade. The now broken sword fell to the ground at James's feet and Hikaru fell on his knees beside it.

"You're far to weak to use this blade," James told Hikaru. He put Kazeshini at Hikaru's throat. "Checkmate." As he said this, the shadows around the room receded. There was nothing to support them any longer.

(Since no one had anything to say, I may as well keep this rolling. By the way, GoreFish, Jake's little friend just arrived.)
James D. Cook

"This battle is over," James said. He allowed the winds to settle and he sheathed both of his swords. He really wished he hadn't been forced to do that. Now Kazeshini would be weak for the next few days.

Hikaru stayed down where he had fallen. James wasn't sure if he had fainted while still sitting up, or if he was just in shock from the pain. James sighed. He pulled out a roll of bandages he had in his pocket and tossed them to Hikaru.

"Here, use these," James said. "I know it isn't much, but you should stop the bleeding until you can reach a proper doctor."

"What...why..." Hikaru gasped. "Why are you helping me?"

James turned so that Hikaru couldn't see his face. "You're just trying to protect this island. I know what that is like."

James headed to the door, but then he felt something crackle under his feet. He looked down at the ground. There was decaying plants, like soft grass and branches. James looked back to the center of the floor where Hikaru was sitting. The room was a mess. James hadn't had any time to notice this between the darkness and fighting for his life. It was almost like...a nest. Maybe some kind of giant bird had lived in this place. James looked around the room. He spotted something small and red in the far corner of the room. He crossed the room quickly with Hikaru staring at him curiously, and he crouched down to look at the object. It was an egg. It had been knocked back into the corner and hidden in a small hole. James pulled it out and nearly dropped it. The egg was burning hot! In fact, in the two seconds since James had picked it up he could tell that the temperature was going up. Wincing slightly, James pulled off his green shirt and wrapped it around the egg. It not only helped protect his hands from the egg, but James could feel the temperature dropping.

"What is that?" Hikaru asked.

"I think it's an egg," James replied.

"An...egg?" Hikaru's voice had just shot up a few octaves. "Destroy it! NOW!" he spat.

James frowned. "Tough talk for someone who I just beat. I'm guessing you know what this is. Are you going to tell me?"

"It's a monster!" Hikaru snapped. "Just get it out of here!"

James shrugged and headed for the door again. He actually managed to leave this time without any distractions, leaving Hikaru behind him.