Avast Me Hearties

[Caira Ayryn]

The adrenaline shot through her veins like the vehement flow of a swelled river during a flood.

What were the odds they'd encountered someone who saw the star fall? What were the odds he was seeking for a different slice of heaven than they were? The mysterious "Abner" reminded Caira a bit of Zack on some... Unspoken level. Abner was older, unshaven, and seemed to have an immense amount of experience in the art of survival.

Heaven again. The feminine, romantic side of the girl fluttered, she had a feeling the stranger had been talking about a girl. She had no proof of this, but still, she smiled. What a man.

Still, they had some surviving to do. This goose chase was becoming the embodiment of Hell. Don't get Caira wrong, surviving Hell so far had been a very accomplished, triumphant journey. But it was one far from over. The female prime hadn't a chance to catch her breath before they stumbled back on the lab coats, almost fluorescent white against the midnight green of the tropical forest.

They stuck out like a sore thumb and Caira sighed as she rolled her eyes, so easy. It would have been so easy for them to change their clothes. Now they were the targets. And Caira and Zack had the advantage of countering as shadows of the night, having always donned black as their usual attire.

But, the one thing the scientists had going for them was that they were putting up one heck of a fight. Behind the pristine lapels of their crisp coats, hidden in pockets and layers of fabric were carbines, cannons, bazookas, glowing plasma grenades, and so much more. Their inventive minds were genius enough to know what and who was worth protecting. The mission, their minds, and the future both would bring.

"Whoa..." Caira said, her faith redeemed and quite evidently impressed, "It's almost like they don't even need us!"

Zack rolled his eyes, a few lucky shots and this girl thought these guys were at the same level as primes. Their aim was sloppy, they had a tough time keeping the heft of their rifles mounted for more than a few seconds, against the natives whose bodies were toned and trained to work against the hours of the night, had the home-field advantage, and likely were fresh warriors. Scientists just didn't have the stamina for this type of thing. The ex-SOLDIER used his sword, chopping across trees to ground the enemies that had perched like snipers in a bird's nest.

"Ayryn, your left!" Zack shouted as a native stabbed a rusty javelin gusting its momentum's wind in her face.

"Grr..." Caira said, having believed falsely that they were free and clear, "Come on, can't we just get a break?"

Her toe spun around in the air and easily disarmed her foe with a swift twist. The native's grasp around the barkless staff fought before it was released and quickly the native's hands went for his poison darts. Whether they were one blow, one kills, or if they simply had elephant tranquilizer, Caira didn't want to find out. So she fought for her life.

Around her, surges of blasts with glowing charges of color shockwaves burst through the night. Neon green, insect gut purple, felix felicis gold, plasma grenade azure, Oververse white, and blackhole black. The labcoats were pushing the skillful natives back with sheer firepower. But was it enough to counter the tireless inhabitants on their own land?

Zack had his own problems to deal with. Not only had he been snagged by two female amazon women, but they'd also hitched him to some sort of beast. Now, he wasn't saying it was a dinosaur, but it sure freaking looked like raptor to him. Tall, spiny, scaly. Jaws of a great white shark, kind of wolflike in demeanor and yet very loyal.

They'd gagged Zack's mouth so he couldn't cry out, and somehow they'd hit points on his arms that had made his arms fall like jiggly jello. "Zack!" Caira felt someone being dragged away, only to look over and see that it was him.

Why was it always him?

Fate had bound them, and yet constantly ripped them apart. Or so it felt.

"Let go of him!" She chased after her fellow prime partner, picking up the fallen buster sword in her hands and holding it heavy and high over her head. The wingless dragon's head was sliced off while two amazon women came up behind Caira in an attempt to flank her. The knight was too good and now held a holy weapon. Channeling the trinity of self, universe, and the holy relic in her hand, she slashed the surrounding foes with a single, constant helicopter motion.  

A shower of blood drenched the monk as the fleshy humans were halved and quickly Caira went over to Zack's side, he was bound and mostly paralyzed, his eyes looked at her while she unsliced his ties and he began to mumble through his gag, his eyes darting over her shoulder.

The amazon woman brought down a rock down and into the base of Caira's skull. Zack was sure he'd heard a crack as he felt her head fall like a bowling ball into his chest. He mumbled a muffled scream and no amount of willpower could make his limp arms move.

No amount of anything could change the certainty Zack felt. Caira lay motionless on top of him. She was dead.

The amazon woman with henna-like warpaint smeared across her face. Vengeance for the wrath Caira had unleashed upon her sisters.

Zack's face was the only thing he could move, his expression was initially lined with desperation and despair, then it flashed to inspired anger. Caira had come over here to save him, now he felt like her valiance was cheapened, she had not saved anyone. Yet he thought highly of her for trying and it didn't make him disappointed in her that she'd been overrun.

"UGH! WHAT DOES A GIRL HAVE TO DO AROUND HERE?!" Caira shouted slamming a punch into the amazon woman's sternum and fracturing it. The blow was a martial arts move, and had instantly delivered a death blow.

"Gods.." she huffed, "Zack, Zack? Are you okay?" Her slimy crimson hands cupped his face to see if his eyes were lolling in death or falling into unconsciousness.

"Phew, I thought I'd lost you," Caira said and squeezed his numb arm. "Glad you're alive," she smiled, and Zack thought she was reading his mind word for word, "It isn't over yet though..."

His eyes remained on her though, wordlessly nodding as she smiled with relief and fished the gasoline drenched gag out of his mouth. Good thing they hadn't had the chance to light that thing on fire, that would've been one terrible blaze of blistering agony and would've left some Joker-esque scars.

Zack was coughing now from the poisonous suffocation and the acid of the gasoline caused him to wretch, which made him look like a worm for his arms flopped aimlessly to the side. Caira caught a whiff of the gas and held her nose, disliking the pungent smell.

After spitting out what he could, Zack felt his arms were still helpless from the chi-blocking amazon woman. Had they not been, Caira would've gotten one heck of a hug. She remained oblivious, too, as she whammed the base of the blade into another incoming foe.

"My arms won't move," he alerted her to his situation. "Poison, or some kind of immobilizing attack."

"Haha it seems you're quite the treasure to them Zack," the knight said with an amused batting of her eyes as she protected her defenseless ally. "This time in the knight in shinning armor."

"Is that whaff I am?" His tongue caught on the t and accidentally pressed it through gasoline stained teeth, "I always knew I was worth more than whaff Gary tried to convince me."

He was damaged but still a good sport, Caira was glad about it, he took his hit gracefully. Meanwhile, she, and her pale skin were slathered in crimson. Like a canvas of white splattered with boldly red, her skin was naturally tinged with silver and lit radiantly by the moon. The blood gleamed glossily in the light. Thankfully, none of it was hers.

Explosions raided the world surrounding them, then a lab coat friendly fired with crimson sparks, slamming into Caira's torso and brutally steamrolled her into a tree. Upon the beating, she whimpered and the tree's leaves had shuffled aggressively above her. Her glowing violet eyes faded, but resilience was amazing. After only a moment, she flicked the tuft of hair that had strayed in the path of her vision and heaved herself upwards once more.

She had no choice but to fight and while her attire was scarred as tattered, still no silver blood had been drawn. A relief, for the man who couldn't fight for himself, he felt worse with the burden being immobilized had caused, for the ex-SOLDIER was drawing more natives coming to steal him away. The reason remained unknown.

"Ah! Get your hands off me!" Zack protested, "I know, I know, I'm great, but you tried to muzzle me last time!"

"Ugh," Caira heaved, having taken damage to her already hurt ribs and torso. That misfire had been some bad luck, while her skin wasn't filleted off the bone, she had a tough time using the buster sword and dragged it along, dredging up the roots of the forest.

The girl winced and immediate pain caused her free arm to clutch her stomach. Her whole face was mangled in a crunched expression of agony. Zack had glimpsed from his native foes to his prime companion and felt immediate guilt. He should've been fighting, they would've been winning. Instead, his mind played back the scene of her head falling onto his chest and her getting catapulted into that tree. Sloppy mistakes due to his own absence in the fight.

Zack tried with all his might to flex against the limpness of his arms but paralysis wasn't something so easily overcome with willpower.

"You fucking idiot!" a familiar voice rumbled in the distance. Yes, Gary was looking at him. Zack fallen and appearing as though he wasn't even putting up a fight.

"Can't even slay a few cannibal Indians?" He glared to Zack and wrapped an arm around Caira, whispering for her to drop the sword.

"I can still fight," she persisted. Her voice was strained. Likely from the leftover torment of her previous wounds.

"You've done enough Caira," Gary said, using her true name, and with it, catching her full attention. "Plus, you won't need to. Watch." He said then hollering at Zack, "Time to save your sorry asses!"

The secondary was surely savoring this, saving two primes! That shit didn't happen very often. Caira looked at Gary earnestly and then collapsed to a knee.

Gary took over. The shadows responded to his call. Bent and twisted, sharpened by the moonlight, the captain took one sweep of the area with his eyes and then gripped a clump of shadow in his hand.

Several shrieks were heard from the unfamiliar voices of the Amazonian women. The two natives by Zack's side had been stabbed directly through the heart by shadow-made scythes.

Their forms fell to the ground, motionless, as their eyes glossed over. He'd ended their war in one move. Now that he had triumphed, he was onto gloating.

"You're lucky I got the distress call from Doctor Jameson, else you'd all be fucking DEAD. You hear me boy?" Zack said nothing. He was not gagged, but this time it wasn't his turn to say anything.

"Girlie, what number you at?" Gary turned his back on the sable haired soldier completely, and set a sympathetic hand on what appeared to be both their weaknesses.

"Num..ber?" She said through her teeth, struggling for air.

"For pain, you rate the pain one to ten, ten being the highest. For women that's childbirth, but you've never..." Gary didn't have to get into the secrets the shadows had told him about her. He surmised, "One to ten."

"I think... my own rib... Is lodged in my lung, I sense it's in there, at least a piece... of it.." Caira's labored breaths grew worse.

"There there, it's probably just a piece, you took a beating the earlier too, this wasn't good for ya. Think you can make it back to the ship?" Gary asked.

A single, noble tear fell across her cheek and her eyes had paled to gray as she admitted painfully, abhorring having to give up, "N-no."

"It'll be okay, I've got you." Gary promised and kissed her hair on the side of her head. Caira's concussion made the sensation painful, but the sentimentality of it was something that warmed her through the pain.

Some redemption arc this has been, Caira thought.

As though sensing this Gary replied, "Plus we have the best doctors in the Omniverse. You just helped to save their lives too."

"I... couldn't even... save myself," Caira struggled.

"No talking, it'll worsen your wounds. I'll shadow sweep us all to the boat. I'd like to leave big sword over there but you probably wouldn't like that," Gary joked, and he was right, Caira would never leave anyone behind even if it killed her. "Also you held them off till I got here. Everyone who fought by your side. That should be enough."

A shadow clumped around the entire group and there was immediate darkness. Pitch, umbral, midnight black filled their vision. Until they were back aboard the submarine. Caira was nowhere in sight. Likely she'd been taken below deck.

Off to Zack's side the mini Charizard pouted up at him as though he too, knew. The moonlight fell on the both of them, but while Zack could stand, he couldn't even wiggle his fingers enough to pet the little lizard to comfort it. With a sigh, he fell to the hollow steel, feeling the weight of fatigue and disappointment hang on him. He wouldn't let this happen again.

The rank scent of gas filled his nose, he'd have to flush it out, but that would require hands to turn on a faucet. Unless he wanted to use salt water, which would definitely sting.

"Boy. You're lucky you've got her. I'd kill you here and now if she weren't around to see it. You're lucky she's alive," that's right, she was the reason Gary had initially done this mission. It was odd just how fatherly he had been to her when she'd shown weakness but then again, all men had them. "Those were called man eaters, had they wanted you dead, they would've done it. They wanted to eat you. Which meant no poison. Caira though, they saw not as edible, but as a threat and equal."

"Funny name." Neither were laughing though.

"They paralyze you?" Gary said, his expression had withered with fatigue. Zack assumed the captain had encountered the 'Man eaters' before.

"Yep," the prime admitted, tasting the anger from Gary and hoping not to infuriate the man any further, particularly while Zack remained defenseless. "Here, I'll fix you up."

A faint hint of a smile crested the man's solemn lips, "You know, she's on the operating table, and she still hasn't let go of your huge freaking sword."

Zack could picture it too easily, she was a stubborn one. He found himself more at ease with the thought and realized that was Gary's point, and felt himself relax a little more. Tough-love, but still compassion in the end.

The captain's shadows extended around the prime's arms, also known as "best eating" and within a few moments, the sensation had come back.

"How does it work?" Zack asked curiously, maybe Gary would throw a bone, but the prime didn't want to have to wait for Caira's surgery to be done alone.

"Oh, these old things?" The man smiled coyly, "It's a long story. A story older than you, boy."

"Cheap shot, old man," he bantered back.

"Aye," the sea-worn man admitted. "I'll summarize, because your attention span is likely that of a dog in heat," he brazed the youth's ego before concluding. "I was nearly a victim to genocide, and I was forced to match it."  

There was a pause. His powers had been forged out of fire. But there was more, Gary continued, "Only after it was too late and my daughter had already died in my arms."

"Was that here?!" Zack gasped, exasperated.

"No no, it was a long time ago." Another pause, "I was your age. She, not even a year old."

What a horrible tragedy it was for a parent to lose their child. Gary had been so young. So that was how darkness had overwhelmed him and transformed him so symbolically.

There were no reposts to that comment.

An hour or so passed, or it could've been much longer. Gary didn't bother to sail the ship away, he felt as though his heart was anchored here until Caira awoke.

There were some silent thuds agains the metal behind them. "So, what are you guys talking about?" She joked, for they had bathed in true, pregnant silence since the mention of Gary's loss.

They both looked back. And there she was.