Runnin'

Langley put her hand on her brother’s arm. He froze, his thumb on the trigger of the firebomb, and watched. Jeff Starling stood there, the pirates leveled their guns, and the mutinous first mate slowly stood, his rapier tip clinking against the stone of the cavern floor.

“Fancy seeing you again, Bartoa,” Jeff said calmly.

“How in all the realms of the underworld did you manage to escape that island?” the man asked in return, edging closer.

“Half-elf.” And Jeff grinned.

Above, Langley hunkered down and quietly reached for her rapier. There was no doubt that the two of them had been seen, not with Sabreur’s idea of ‘stealth’. However, they were not being paid attention to and Langley doubted that any of the pirates below them could recognize a ‘mancer.

“I’ve come for my ship, Bartoa,” Jeff said, “and my loot. Savvy?”

The crew of pirates threw back their heads and laughed. It echoed across the cavern and around Jeff, who stood motionless, and Bartoa, who was starting to edge from one foot to the other. He’d stared down his disgruntled crew before. He’d staged a mutiny. He’d raided ports and ships aplenty. But standing here, with a seemingly unarmed man watching his every move, with those delicate points to his ears poking from beneath matted hair… well, Bartoa was starting to sweat. Besides, there were those two – kids? – hovering in that tunnel just above his head. That one with the goggles on his forehead looked a bit reckless.

“Well, you won’t be getting it,” Bartoa replied, turning to his crew, “Gentlemen! We don’t allow half-elf scum on our ship. Shoot him.”

Sabreur leapt from the tunnel mouth. There was a small click as a button was pressed. An overhead lob and the silver sphere revolving as it flew over the heads of the pirates to ‘tak’ against the far wall. A splash as it fell into the foot or so of water below. Then silence. Jeff’s smirk vanished and a couple people laughed nervously.

“That –was- a firebomb, right?” Jeff asked, leaning towards the Stormrider.

“Nope,” he replied, and grabbed Jeff by the neck and forced him to the ground.

It was a roar like tearing cloth magnified a thousand times. The water exploded up and out as a sheet of slivers of metal flew through the air, embedding themselves into stone, flesh, and bone. Langley shrieked and dove back behind the crest of the tunnel. All around the cave the pirates were yelping and screaming, running for cover and flailing at the slivers that had punched into their flesh.

“Not as effective as I’d hoped,” Sabreur said, scrambling to his feet and drawing his rapier, “but not bad for a first field test.”

“That was an exploding void space!” his sister cried, leaping from her perch with both rapiers draw, “You psycho! You actually threw a voidbomb!”

“Glass sphere packed full of shrapnel and encased in a metal firebomb cover. The delay was the glass breaking out of the metal cover and hitting something strong enough to shatter it. Clever, eh?”

Langley just shook her head and put her back towards his. The pirates had regained their senses and were charging the two. Jeff was somewhere out of eyeshot and Langley frankly did not care what he was doing at the moment.

“I suppose I could have put bigger pieces of metal in there,” Sabreur continued, “The splinters didn’t do much aside from make them mad.”

“I don’t know, there’s a couple dead over there.”

She parried a wild swing with a cutlass with her right hand rapier and swept the left up and across the man’s throat.

“Lucky hits. Probably in vitals or something and if you look, they were standing closer to the explosion than the others.”

He did a twirl of the wrist that wrapped his blade around the nearest pirate’s and with another movement of the arm and wrist sent the weapon dancing across the ground and out of his grasp. Then Sabreur stepped forwards and sucker-punched the man. He dropped.

“Still, I’d rather prefer that you not experiment with-“

That was when something exploded directly between the two. The explosion picked them both up off their feet and threw them against the walls of the cavern. Thankfully, it also took a couple pirates out with them, who landed rather poorly. The twins were used to being thrown around like rag dolls and managed to hit bundled up with heads protected. After all, they were Academy students.

Langley slid to the ground, landing on her knees, and coughed. She wiped blood off her chin and pulled the feather from the brim of her hat. Opposite her Sabreur was lighting a match.

And between the two, hands held out to either side, was someone they had written off as just another pirate. Of course, now that he’d actually done something, the reek of ‘mancy hung heavy in the air about him.

“Right,” Langley growled, “They’ve got a ‘mancer.”

Sabreur stood. Glared. “Three can play at this game,” he said evenly.

At the opposite end of the cavern Bartoa and Jeff faced each other. Around them lay the bodies of the handful of crew that had tried to intercept the half-elf before he reached their captain. Jeff hadn’t precisely killed them – he’d more of been in the right place at the right time. At some point he’d managed to acquire one of their weapons, only to have another pirate promptly break the blade with a well-aimed strike, step on the jagged broken end, slip, and crack his head against the stone floor – knocking himself out cold. So now it was just him and Bartoa, a pistol leveled at Jeff’s heart and here he was with nothing on him.

He wasn’t concerned. Something would turn up. It always did.

“Hey Langley,” Sabreur called to his sister, “Remember what Dog taught us?”

She nodded and glanced around. They were outnumbered four to one still. Normally they’d be willing to give this a try, except their ‘mancer was turning a rock in his hands and waiting for his allies to get into a good position before attacking.

“Right,” she said, “Sabreur, I think now is the time to take our dear tutor’s teachings to heart.”

“Indeed.”

The pirates chuckled and stepped in. Here it was now, draw steel and make a desperate, doomed, last stand. Of course, everyone was very surprised when the two ran for it. Sabreur just dropped his match and bolted for the entrance, leaping over the head of a very surprised man with a saber in doing so. Langley followed, skidded as she remembered Jeff, and bolted back. Grabbed his arm as him and Bartoa faced off.

“We’re leaving,” she said, and flicked her hand at Bartoa’s pistol so that when he pulled the trigger the only thing that happened was an empty clicking noise.

“Wonderful, Langley.”

And Jeff pulled out of her grasp, drawing one of her pistols as he did so, and turned and fired. There was a sound like glass shattering and the bullet hit the floor with a ping.

“You’re not the only one that can stop guns, missy!” The pirate ‘mancer was grinning in an unpleasant manner. As was Bartoa. Langley didn’t give them a chance to do anything else; just hauled on Jeff’s collar and pulled him towards the exit.

“Escape route,” she snapped at him, “this is why we planned for an escape route!”

“But my treasure!”

“Your rum-sodden hide! Now move your pointy-eared ass – they’ve got a ‘mancer and aren’t afraid to use it.”

“Oh yeh. Forgot about him,” Jeff replied thoughtfully.

Crystal was at the cave exit, holding the bridles of all three horses. No one said anything to her as they came tearing up out of the tunnel, an angry pirate mob echoing behind them. Langley leapt onto a horse and pulled Crystal up behind her. Jeff staggered on to his and Sabreur just flopped onto the back of the third.

“Let’s move,” Langley cried, “Back to the Ark!”

“Butterfly,” Crystal said, “Stay here and tell the pirates to leave us alone, alright?”

That made Langley hesitate to putting her heels to the horse’s side.

“Butterfly? Who is Butterfly?”

The bushes rustled. Parted. And a very familiar man, the very one that Sabreur had killed while securing an escape route, staggered out. His eyes were glazed over and the chest was not rising and falling. Langley noted this detail with a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach.

The zombie nodded and staggered over to the cave entrance. That was enough. Langley kicked the horse in the ribs and the beast – all too eager to get away from the smell of death and necromancy – bolted down the path towards the Ark.

Behind them the first of the pirates rounded the corner and skidded to a stop before Butterfly.

“Hey, step aside mate!” one snapped, “You’re letting them… get… by….”

That’s around when he noticed the gaping sword wound in the neck. And the glazed eyes. His mouth opened and before he could make a sound the zombie had seized him by the throat, lifted him in the air, and in one smooth movement snapped his neck and threw him aside. Things went rapidly downhill from there.

“Most entertaining,” a scrawny figure whispered from where he leaned against the outside wall of the cavern, listening to the sounds of chaos from within, “And it’s only going to get better.”

Whistling, Mihos walked away in the direction the twins had gone, fading in and out of reality. He’d catch up with them in a few heartbeats and from there, well, then the real fun would start.

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