Thunder Falling chapter 12
Jun. 27th, 2005 12:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
croikI really should set up a better schedule for updates. They're very irregular O_o
Guilty Gear, its characters and settings are property of Sammy Studios, and are being used in this fanfiction without permission. This fic is rated R for violence and sexual content, and it contains yaoi material.
Thunder Falling
Chapter 12
Johnny hadn’t really expected that even his iaido would be enough to stop the beast he was facing, but he had hoped it would at least slow him down. When thick blood spilled down the length of his sword to his hands he felt, for a moment, a thrill of accomplishment. As long as he stayed on the offensive, he could buy Dizzy enough time to finish the clamps and maybe even throw Raven overboard. Which probably wouldn’t have stopped him, either, but at least then they could regroup and think of a better way to fight the thing.
Those brief plans were quickly dashed by the time he’d made them. No sooner than Johnny’s sword caught, the tissue he’d sliced to get there was already beginning to close over. Raven’s low laughter rumbled in Johnny’s ears just before he felt a thick hand wrap around his throat. It only took the slightest effort from the creature to cut off his air. Already light-headed from blood loss his struggles were weak as he pawed at the thick fingers.
“Johnny!”
Johnny’s gaze darted toward the voice. Though his sight was thin he could make out Dizzy on the other end of the ship. He tried to call a warning. But as he watched Dizzy’s black wing began to grow, stretching out beside her and seemingly unaffected by the wind. It was forming the shape of a man. He could discern no specific features, other than a long dark cloak, a hood…and what might have been a curved, glowing bow.
Johnny didn’t see the projectile hit, but he could feel its heat against his fingers. Raven was wrenched bodily away from him—his sword came free, and one of the dark talons drew a shallow gash along Johnny’s jaw as his grip was broken as well. With a startled yelp Johnny dropped to the hull, and glanced up just in time to see his opponent being thrown onto the airship’s wing.
“Johnny!” Dizzy dropped down beside him, helping him to sit up. Her warm hand against his face quickly healed the fresh incision. “Are you all right?” she asked fearfully, her eyes darting among the streaks of blood his thigh had spread across the ship. It looked pretty gruesome, even to him.
“Heh. Looks like I lost more than I thought…” Johnny hissed as Dizzy’s hands sought out his wounded thigh, slowly closing the wounds. Even though the pain was fading he felt nauseous and uneasy. “I’m all right,” he assured Dizzy anyway. “Where is he?”
He spotted Raven before Dizzy had the chance to point him out; Raven was crouched near the tip of the merchant ship’s port wing, pulling what looked like a long, red arrow out of his side. It disintegrated once it was free. He turned his gleaming eyes on Dizzy.
Dizzy gulped, her hands tightening reflexively against Johnny’s leg and making him wince. “He’s…he’s not a Gear,” she said in Johnny’s ear. “I can’t…feel him, like I could Testament…”
Johnny eased her hands back. “I didn’t think so, either.”
Raven stood, his balance perfect despite the blowing wind. The humor had by now faded from his expression. “I think that’s enough playtime for now.”
He leapt forward, and though Johnny and Dizzy both tensed the jump was not enough to carry him back onto the main hull of the ship. He landed easily just beside the portside engine. By the time Johnny realized what he was up to it was too late—the gears and propellers were easily shredded, and gave off a brief spume of dark smoke before falling silent.
For a moment everything seemed suspended. The airship was continuing on, Johnny and Raven regarding each other across the short space…and then, as if on cue, everything started to fall. The small merchant ship lurched, already crippled and now failing, and tugged with a squeal on the two of Mayship’s tow wires Dizzy had managed to attach.
“Hold on…!” Johnny twisted, finding and latching onto one of the thick metal bars the clamps should have been attached to. Dizzy clung to him as the entire ship began to tip. With the wires only attached on the starboard side the entire craft began to swing downward in a sickening rush. Johnny clung to the bar with both hands, pinning Dizzy between his body and the ship with her arms wrapped tightly around his neck as the ground dropped out from under them.
When they were fully vertical Johnny managed to glance down, just long enough to see Raven flung from the craft.
*****
May braced herself against the back of a chair as Mayship tilted and groaned. Several of the bridge crew members were sent tumbling with the sudden shift of level ground beneath them. “What happened?” she demanded, drawing herself up the incline to reach her connection with Novere. “What’s going on? Is Johnny all right?”
It took a moment for Novere to respond; meanwhile, her crew ran about, adding power to the starboard engine in an attempt to stabilize them. “Captain!” her voice finally broke through the speaker. “The Korean ship’s engines are out—they’re hanging by two lines!”
“Is it holding?” The ship was much smaller than Mayship, so they should not have had any problem staying airborne, but with only two lines there was a threat of the cleats ripping free.
“So far, Captain! But Johnny and Dizzy are in trouble. We’ve got to get them down!”
May chewed her lip worriedly as she pictured the scene Novere was describing to her. Her fist impulse was to run to the lower hatch, to make sure he was all right… But she caught a glance from April that halted her. The ship came first. Johnny had always taught her that.
“Hu…Hurry our descent!” she called to her deck hands. “We’ve got to get that ship down before we lose it! Head for the edge of the city!”
“Aye, Captain!”
“Johnny…” May licked her lips as she retook her position at the head of the ship. “Hold on, just a little longer…”
**
Sol tried to keep his gaze focused on the ships overhead as he and Jam continued to race through Beijing’s crowded streets. She was a great deal more adept at maneuvering around the street vendors and rickshaws than he was, but he was able to keep up by benefit of his greater speed. By now it seemed that they were directly beneath the battling airships.
“Why are you following me?” Jam demanded, not looking back as she all but bounced through the crowd. Everyone was watching the spectacle unfold above them, making it a little easier to weave through their stationary bodies.
“I’m not,” Sol grunted. He wasn’t following her. They were just heading in the same direction.
“You want to take out some pirates, too, ah?” This time Jam flashed him a bright grin. “If you can take out more than me, that expensive dinner of yours is on the house.”
Sol’s lip twitched despite himself; wise men never passed up free meals. “It’s a deal.”
He glanced up at the ships again, and as he and everyone else on the streets watched, the smaller vessel’s engine suddenly began to belch dark smoke. A murmur arose from the spectators, and then a cry as the ship wavered and started to fall. Sol bit back a curse. “What the hell is that Johnny up to?” He’d always known the pirate to be an idiot, but bringing a ship down over a heavily populated city was something new.
Ahead of him, Jam was muttering profanity in her own language—he couldn’t make much of it out. As they continued to push through the groups of people, Sol’s attention was drawn suddenly by a dark shape plummeting off the crippled ship. He squinted against the sun. “What the hell…”
It was heading straight for them, and it didn’t look like metal. He forced his way over to Jam to grab her by the arm. “Wait. Something’s not—”
Jam slipped out of his grip with surprisingly little effort. “Don’t try to stop me, stranger. This is my city, and no pirate’s gonna—”
The rest of her words were swallowed by the sound of the impact; a dozen or so meters ahead of them, the debris from the ship smashed into the ground with a startling percussion. Jam finally halted as she stared at the strange purple mass that was now imbedded in the stone street. She gave Sol a shove. “What is that?”
Sol frowned. It looked like no one had been hit by the bizarre meteorite, but there were a lot of people still out in the open, and beginning to crowd around it. Something tingled at the back of his neck in warning. It wasn’t the familiar aura of a Gear, though. It was…less natural than that.
Whatever it was moved—twitched, a little, like an injured insect. Sol finally jarred back to life and began pushing through the crowd once more. “Get away from it!” he shouted, already drawing his sword. The sight of Fireseal’s gleaming blade drove several people away, even if they weren’t yet wary of the shifting projectile. “Stand back, all of you!”
The men and women closest to the thing looked up, and seemed about to back off as he’d instructed. One woman wasn’t quick enough, and neither was Sol. He was still a few meters away when five long, clawed fingers burst through her back.
The crowd’s wary curiosity shifted quickly to panic as the woman’s blood spurted out onto the closest bystanders. Sol clenched his jaw and set his feet; all at once the crowd was a mob, surging with cries and curses away from what was by now clearly some kind of creature. Sol did his best to hold his ground despite the wave of frantic bodies scrambling past him. As the area around the creature thinned, he was finally granted a view of its unusual appearance.
Raven straightened, flicking the woman’s corpse from his arm. Though Sol had never seen something quite like this—his senses still insisted this was no Gear—he was already preparing his magic for a fight. As soon as he had more room…
Raven didn’t wait for the people to clear away. As soon as his eyes met Sol’s through the crowd he grinned darkly, and abruptly leapt into the air. Sol tensed, but there were still too many of the city folk churning about him, and any burst of magic or sweep of his sword would have taken several of them down with this new foe. It wasn’t like him to care about things like that. But as the monster bore down on him he only lifted his sword at an angle before him, hoping to catch at least some part of his enemy when he landed.
The pair collided heavily, Sol thrown to his back with the weight against his chest. A few of the fleeing spectators were dragged down with them into the heap. He felt his sword lodge in flesh of some kind but it didn’t seem to stop Raven in the slightest; sharpened talons flashed out at him, tearing long gashes along his face. If the fall hadn’t jarred his aim, he might have torn Sol’s throat out.
“What the fuck are you?” Sol hissed, twisting Fireseal with one hand while the other landed a heavy punch to the side of the creature’s jaw. The claws continued to scrape at him, drawing blood from his arm and chest, but that didn’t stop him from continuing his savage blows to Raven’s jaw and throat. “Get off!”
“Hi-YAH!”
A red, high heeled shoe entered Sol’s vision for a mere fraction of a second. As unexpected as the aid was it caught Raven even more off guard. The beast reeled back with a short cry, vanishing for a moment into the last of the staggering crowd.
Sol scrambled to his feet, Fireseal humming in his grip as he got his bearings. He shook his head and flicked blood in all directions, but by then the wounds were already closing. “Jam?”
“What is that thing?” Jam repeated, and Sol was annoyed to see her standing almost protectively in front of him. “Is it a Gear?”
Sol stepped up beside her, watching as, a few meters away, Raven pushed to his feet. It wasn’t until then that Sol realized Jam had thrust the heel of her nice shoe through his eye socket. Bits of gore were sliding down the side of his face along with the blood. And he was smiling.
“It’s not a Gear,” Sol muttered, by now pretty confident in his assessment. “It’s…something different.” He bit back the opinion that it might have been something worse.
“I am Raven,” the creature introduced suddenly. He jerked Jam’s shoe from his face to be tossed aside, and with a finger scooped some of the bloody ooze from his cheek back into the injured socket. Sol and Jam both cringed at the disgusting display as Raven’s eye was reformed perfectly. “I already know who you are, Sol Badguy.”
Sol’s expression darkened. Jam’s heels were at least three inches high—enough that her blow should have struck to this ‘Raven’s’ brain. And still he was unhindered. “What are you?”
“Something inhuman,” Raven replied easily. “Like you.” He shook his head, allowing his long hair to fall into order down his back. “But I didn’t come here for you. I’ve already done my job.”
“You mean the ship?” Sol’s fingers clenched. If a monster like this was working for someone—
“You bastard!” Jam shouted suddenly beside him. “Don’t think you can terrorize my city and get away with it!” She tensed for a jump.
“Jam, wait—” Sol reached for her but by then it was too late; Jam propelled herself through the air with a powerful jump. As she extended her leg for a kick the limb was bathed in the light of her ki, driving her at an incredible speed toward Raven’s already injured face.
Raven made no move to dodge the blow; the bone of her heel struck him firmly between the eyes, driving him back several steps as Jam landed effortlessly on her feet. She was grinning in accomplishment. But Sol knew better than to think she had done any real damage. Even as Raven regained his balance Sol could feel a swell of magic from him. He darted forward. “Jam!”
Raven spread his fingers, and Sol didn’t wait to see what kind of magic he would unleash on them. He circled an arm around Jam’s waist, drawing her with him to his knees as he planted Fireseal before them. His own magic burst from the eager blade in a swell of swirling fire. The impact of Raven’s magic came a moment later. There was a deafening hiss, the sting of heated steam wafting back and stinging his exposed skin. He felt Jam cringe as the burning vapor bit at her bare legs and arms. But he kept the pressure of his fire constant, driving Raven’s power back until they both lost their stamina and stopped, gasping.
Raven staggered back a step as bits of remaining moisture fell from his open palm. Sol didn’t move. He still didn’t trust that the creature had sustained any injury, or was even weakened from the battle of energies.
Raven laughed, a low, almost weary sound. Only when he lowered his hand did Sol relax minutely. “Well done,” Raven complimented. “He was right about you after all.”
“He?” Sol tightened his arm around Jam’s waist when she began to squirm. If Raven was retreating, he had no intention of letting her provoke him again. “What are you talking about?”
“You’ll understand soon enough.” Raven took another step back, looking honestly about to depart. “We’ll meet again. Fredrick.”
Despite having no previous intentions of detaining the strange man, Sol’s heart lost a beat when he mentioned his name. He straightened. “What?”
But Raven only smirked. He hopped lightly into the air, and before Sol could even begin to decide if he were going to give chase Raven was enveloped in a bright, swirling aura. His figure seemed to ripple, like waves in a pond, as he slowly dissolved from sight. It only took a moment for him to disappear entirely.
Sol sighed, and finally let Jam go as he pushed to his feet. He had expended more magic defending from Raven’s attack than he’s realized, and the sudden fatigue made him glad he hadn’t had the chance to challenge Raven again.
Jam, however, was clearly not satisfied. “What the hell?” she demanded, rubbing at the faint burns along her arms. “You let him go! And you stopped me from taking him out.”
“You wouldn’t have been able to anyway,” Sol assured her, though it earned him her heavy glare. “It’s probably better that he left.” His sigh was almost a growl. “Whatever the hell he really was.”
“If not a Gear, what else?” Jam glanced around, and was relieved to see the natives beginning to peek out their windows and come out from behind the vender carts. Other than the woman Raven had torn apart, there seemed to be only minor injuries. “You saw him fall out of the damn sky, too.”
“Yeah.” He wasn’t happy to admit he didn’t know anything living that could do something like that without injury. Save maybe Justice. But he dared not mention that name with so many people still around. “Whatever. It’s gone. Let’s just be glad he didn’t decide to wipe your beloved city out.”
Jam crossed her arms, still glaring at him as she kicked off her other shoe. Suddenly she glanced up. “The ships,” she recalled. “They’re still coming down.” She turned about; by now the airships were far ahead of them, still heading in a steady decline towards the city’s edge. Without another word she resumed her chase.
Sol’s shoulders sagged. His interest had been in the ship’s attacker, not pirates or merchants or whatever else. But then the remembered Raven’s words. Whatever Raven had been sent to do, the answer was on that falling ton of steel. The only clue he had as to what he’d just fought, and who it was working for.
He scraped some more of the blood from his face and started off after Jam again.
*****
Johnny tightened his already white-knuckled grip on the ship’s hull. It wasn’t often that he was out of options, but there was no denying that was his situation at present. Dizzy was still clinging to him, her breath fast against his ear. And they were still falling, so fast that it was nauseating, and he couldn’t hear anything but the high whistle of the wind tearing at him.
They had to get off before the ship hit. No matter how gently May was able to put the ships down, the impact would still be enough to throw them, especially with his grasp as weak as it already was. He grimaced as he tried to twist, viewing their surroundings. “Dizzy?”
“Johnny.” Her arms tightened around his neck. “We’re…going to crash, aren’t we?”
“Yeah…” Johnny smiled grimly. “I’m afraid so.”
Dizzy was silent for a moment, her fingers curling in the back of his coat. They were pressed so close that he felt her gulp. “I have an idea.”
“Now would be a good time for one.”
Dizzy relaxed her hold a little; Johnny grimaced as she pressed at his shoulders, pushing herself higher up his body. And then blushed, when she stopped with his face smashed between her breasts. He had to turn his head to keep from being smothered. “What are you doing?”
“Trust me, Johnny,” Dizzy told him, her voice barely audible over the wind. Her legs parted around his ribs, fitting their bodies closer together. When her tail swayed it knocked between his knees.
Johnny smiled ironically. At least there might not have been any better way for a man to die….
“Hold on,” Dizzy told him as she spread her wings flat against the hull.
It wasn’t until then that Johnny really realized what she was up to, but he didn’t have enough time to protest. Dizzy braced her feet against the ship behind her, and with a quiet cry pushed them away from the shuddering steel. Johnny let go of the cleat as he felt the press of her body—there was a single, terrifying instant when he felt himself slip before he was able to wrap his arms around her. But Dizzy’s hands were still fisted in his coat, and her thighs tightened around his middle to keep him from falling. Gasping in relieved laughter Johnny tightened his arms around her as they sailed away from the ship, gliding on Dizzy’s long wings.
Once they were far enough away Dizzy stretched her wings out further, providing them with a broad canopy to slow their descent. It probably still wouldn’t be the easiest landing, but at least they were going much slower now, and with less strain to Johnny’s weary fingers.
He sighed against her stomach. “Good job, Dizzy. That’s my girl.”
He wasn’t sure if Dizzy heard him, but her felt her give his head a little squeeze as they continued down.
Ahead of them, the pair of ships continued on. Johnny and Dizzy watched hopefully as Mayship finally cleared the edge of the city, bringing them into a forest of bamboo. The tall green spires parted and snapped before the crippled vessels, and soon the Korean tradeship was finally set down among the thin trees. Mayship released the towlines, and though the rescued ship gave a lurch, it seemed to have settled as peacefully as it could. Mayshship herself continued on, gaining altitude.
“Are they leaving us?” Dizzy said worriedly. They approaching the ground themselves now, and he could feel her tense in preparation.
“No,” Johnny assured. “Bejing has a Global Police headquarters near here. They won’t be able to land. Don’t worry.” He gave her a squeeze. “They’ll come back for us.”
“Oh, yes. Of course.”
The pair fell silent as they completed their descent. As Johnny had suspected it still wasn’t the comfiest of landings; his feet hit first, and were dragged for a bit before Dizzy folded her wings and sent them both falling to the ground. Johnny grunted as he flopped to his back with Dizzy dropping on top of him. The impact made his thigh ache all over again, but otherwise they seemed to have landed without harm.
“How’s that,” Johnny chuckled, letting his arms fall. At least the soil here was soft; he would never be so grateful for earth beneath him again. “We survived.”
Dizzy giggled breathlessly above him as she stretched her weary wings and arms. “Yes, Johnny.”
The two of them remained still for a moment, just catching their breath. Finally Dizzy’s embarrassment outweighed her fatigue, and she picked herself up off the equally tired pirate. “Are you all right?” she asked with some concern, trying to get another peek of his thigh. “I don’t think I was able to heal it very well before.”
“I’m all right,” Johnny quickly assured. “Lost enough blood for one day, but it’s closed over now.” He pushed himself up but didn’t make it very far; now that they were on the ground and out of danger, his arms felt like jelly. “Help me up, would you? We should go see if anyone on that ship survived…”
Dizzy frowned slightly, but nodded, and helped pull Johnny to his feet. There was a moment of laughter between them as they both tottered a little. But finally they were walking—limping, in Johnny’s case—towards the now silent merchant ship.
The hull was mostly intact, save the long gash in the port side and broken engine. It was the port wing that had taken the most damage in the fall. Johnny and Dizzy approached carefully, wary that whatever had attacked them in the air might have left something behind. But when Johnny tapped on the side what followed was the startled gasp of a woman from somewhere inside. “Thank God, at least someone’s alive,” Johnny sighed. But his gaze was swimming a little, so he touched Dizzy’s arm to urge her forward. “Will you go see? There might be people who need healing.”
Dizzy nodded seriously. “All right, Johnny.” Tucking her wings in as much as she could she crouched down, and crawled through the ripped opening in the ship’s side.
Johnny waited until she was inside before letting himself slip to the ground. “Haven’t been this worn out in a while,” he chuckled, finally taking a moment to check himself for injuries. His thigh had indeed stopped bleeding, but it still stung like mad. His hands and arms were going to be very sore in a few hours from clinging to the side of the ship, not to mention the hand-shaped bruises that were no doubt already darkening his neck.
“Someone,” Johnny declared with a sigh, leaning back, “is due for a vacation.”
Footsteps rustled closer through what remained of the bamboo, and Johnny tensed, struggling to his feet once more. Already weakened and without his sword there wasn’t much he could do if Raven had decided to chase him down after all. When two very distinctively human figures appeared through the trees, he slumped raggedly. “My heart can’t take this.”
“What happened to you?” Sol grunted as he stepped closer, Jam beside him. “You look like shit.”
“You, too,” Johnny countered, indicating his face, which was still covered in drying blood. “Did she do that?”
“Listen, you pirate,” Jam snapped at him in Chinese, marching forward. “We don’t want your kind here. I don’t care if it was you or that freak that took the ship down, but you’re outta here!”
Johnny held his hands up in surrender. “I don’t speak Chinese,” he said sheepishly.
“Oh? How ‘bout now?” Jam muttered, switching to Global tongue. It wasn’t much easier to understand, with her accent. “I was saying—”
“Hold on.” Sol rolled his eyes as he stepped forward. “I have some questions for you,” he said, glaring at Johnny. “And you’re going to answer.”
Johnny sighed. He was pretty sure he’d had more than enough excitement. “Come on, Badguy, I’ve had enough trouble with monsters for one day. Give me a break, will ya?”
That made Sol pause, to Johnny’s satisfaction. “So you fought that thing. No wonder you look awful.”
Johnny returned his frown. “You saw it, too?”
Their conversation was interrupted with the appearance of Dizzy crawling through the wrecked airship hull. She blinked in surprise to see Johnny wasn’t alone. Her gaze hesitated on Sol before sliding to Jam, and she gasped. “Miss Kuradoberi!”
Jam, who had been stubbornly ignoring the others, jumped and whipped around. “Dizzy!” she cried. “I thought I turned you in!”
Dizzy shrank back with a nervous smile. “Well, yes, but…”
“Enough,” Sol said gruffly. “We have more important things to worry about.”
“Oh! That’s right…” Dizzy moved out of the way of the opening, reaching back to help a middle-aged woman through. She was bleeding from a small wound on her forehead that dripped red into her thick black hair. She was murmuring quietly to herself; Johnny’s eyes widened when he recognized the language.
“I can’t understand her,” Dizzy said, helping her to her feet. “It looks like…there were only two survivors.”
Johnny limped closer, keeping one hand against the side of the ship as he motioned to Dizzy with the other. “Give her to me. I’ll talk to her.”
Dizzy nodded, helping the woman towards him. He cleared his throat. His Japanese was probably rusty, but he could at least manage a simple consolation. “It’s all right,” he told her, giving her a smile. “You’re Japanese, right? It’s all right now.”
The woman stared up at him with wide, startled eyes, and when she realized what Johnny had said to her she launched suddenly into a torrent of words, falling against his chest with what sounded like pleas. It was much too fast for him to pick up much, and he tried to calm her by holding her a bit closer. “Slowly, slowly. My Japanese is very bad…”
Sol glared at him, a harsher version of the baffled stare Jam was fixing him and the woman. “She’s Japanese?” he demanded. “What the hell is she doing here?”
“Hold on,” Johnny muttered before turning back to the woman. He touched her cheek gently to keep her attention and calm her down. “Slowly,” he tried again in Japanese. “Tell me what happened.”
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Guilty Gear, its characters and settings are property of Sammy Studios, and are being used in this fanfiction without permission. This fic is rated R for violence and sexual content, and it contains yaoi material.
Thunder Falling
Chapter 12
Johnny hadn’t really expected that even his iaido would be enough to stop the beast he was facing, but he had hoped it would at least slow him down. When thick blood spilled down the length of his sword to his hands he felt, for a moment, a thrill of accomplishment. As long as he stayed on the offensive, he could buy Dizzy enough time to finish the clamps and maybe even throw Raven overboard. Which probably wouldn’t have stopped him, either, but at least then they could regroup and think of a better way to fight the thing.
Those brief plans were quickly dashed by the time he’d made them. No sooner than Johnny’s sword caught, the tissue he’d sliced to get there was already beginning to close over. Raven’s low laughter rumbled in Johnny’s ears just before he felt a thick hand wrap around his throat. It only took the slightest effort from the creature to cut off his air. Already light-headed from blood loss his struggles were weak as he pawed at the thick fingers.
“Johnny!”
Johnny’s gaze darted toward the voice. Though his sight was thin he could make out Dizzy on the other end of the ship. He tried to call a warning. But as he watched Dizzy’s black wing began to grow, stretching out beside her and seemingly unaffected by the wind. It was forming the shape of a man. He could discern no specific features, other than a long dark cloak, a hood…and what might have been a curved, glowing bow.
Johnny didn’t see the projectile hit, but he could feel its heat against his fingers. Raven was wrenched bodily away from him—his sword came free, and one of the dark talons drew a shallow gash along Johnny’s jaw as his grip was broken as well. With a startled yelp Johnny dropped to the hull, and glanced up just in time to see his opponent being thrown onto the airship’s wing.
“Johnny!” Dizzy dropped down beside him, helping him to sit up. Her warm hand against his face quickly healed the fresh incision. “Are you all right?” she asked fearfully, her eyes darting among the streaks of blood his thigh had spread across the ship. It looked pretty gruesome, even to him.
“Heh. Looks like I lost more than I thought…” Johnny hissed as Dizzy’s hands sought out his wounded thigh, slowly closing the wounds. Even though the pain was fading he felt nauseous and uneasy. “I’m all right,” he assured Dizzy anyway. “Where is he?”
He spotted Raven before Dizzy had the chance to point him out; Raven was crouched near the tip of the merchant ship’s port wing, pulling what looked like a long, red arrow out of his side. It disintegrated once it was free. He turned his gleaming eyes on Dizzy.
Dizzy gulped, her hands tightening reflexively against Johnny’s leg and making him wince. “He’s…he’s not a Gear,” she said in Johnny’s ear. “I can’t…feel him, like I could Testament…”
Johnny eased her hands back. “I didn’t think so, either.”
Raven stood, his balance perfect despite the blowing wind. The humor had by now faded from his expression. “I think that’s enough playtime for now.”
He leapt forward, and though Johnny and Dizzy both tensed the jump was not enough to carry him back onto the main hull of the ship. He landed easily just beside the portside engine. By the time Johnny realized what he was up to it was too late—the gears and propellers were easily shredded, and gave off a brief spume of dark smoke before falling silent.
For a moment everything seemed suspended. The airship was continuing on, Johnny and Raven regarding each other across the short space…and then, as if on cue, everything started to fall. The small merchant ship lurched, already crippled and now failing, and tugged with a squeal on the two of Mayship’s tow wires Dizzy had managed to attach.
“Hold on…!” Johnny twisted, finding and latching onto one of the thick metal bars the clamps should have been attached to. Dizzy clung to him as the entire ship began to tip. With the wires only attached on the starboard side the entire craft began to swing downward in a sickening rush. Johnny clung to the bar with both hands, pinning Dizzy between his body and the ship with her arms wrapped tightly around his neck as the ground dropped out from under them.
When they were fully vertical Johnny managed to glance down, just long enough to see Raven flung from the craft.
*****
May braced herself against the back of a chair as Mayship tilted and groaned. Several of the bridge crew members were sent tumbling with the sudden shift of level ground beneath them. “What happened?” she demanded, drawing herself up the incline to reach her connection with Novere. “What’s going on? Is Johnny all right?”
It took a moment for Novere to respond; meanwhile, her crew ran about, adding power to the starboard engine in an attempt to stabilize them. “Captain!” her voice finally broke through the speaker. “The Korean ship’s engines are out—they’re hanging by two lines!”
“Is it holding?” The ship was much smaller than Mayship, so they should not have had any problem staying airborne, but with only two lines there was a threat of the cleats ripping free.
“So far, Captain! But Johnny and Dizzy are in trouble. We’ve got to get them down!”
May chewed her lip worriedly as she pictured the scene Novere was describing to her. Her fist impulse was to run to the lower hatch, to make sure he was all right… But she caught a glance from April that halted her. The ship came first. Johnny had always taught her that.
“Hu…Hurry our descent!” she called to her deck hands. “We’ve got to get that ship down before we lose it! Head for the edge of the city!”
“Aye, Captain!”
“Johnny…” May licked her lips as she retook her position at the head of the ship. “Hold on, just a little longer…”
**
Sol tried to keep his gaze focused on the ships overhead as he and Jam continued to race through Beijing’s crowded streets. She was a great deal more adept at maneuvering around the street vendors and rickshaws than he was, but he was able to keep up by benefit of his greater speed. By now it seemed that they were directly beneath the battling airships.
“Why are you following me?” Jam demanded, not looking back as she all but bounced through the crowd. Everyone was watching the spectacle unfold above them, making it a little easier to weave through their stationary bodies.
“I’m not,” Sol grunted. He wasn’t following her. They were just heading in the same direction.
“You want to take out some pirates, too, ah?” This time Jam flashed him a bright grin. “If you can take out more than me, that expensive dinner of yours is on the house.”
Sol’s lip twitched despite himself; wise men never passed up free meals. “It’s a deal.”
He glanced up at the ships again, and as he and everyone else on the streets watched, the smaller vessel’s engine suddenly began to belch dark smoke. A murmur arose from the spectators, and then a cry as the ship wavered and started to fall. Sol bit back a curse. “What the hell is that Johnny up to?” He’d always known the pirate to be an idiot, but bringing a ship down over a heavily populated city was something new.
Ahead of him, Jam was muttering profanity in her own language—he couldn’t make much of it out. As they continued to push through the groups of people, Sol’s attention was drawn suddenly by a dark shape plummeting off the crippled ship. He squinted against the sun. “What the hell…”
It was heading straight for them, and it didn’t look like metal. He forced his way over to Jam to grab her by the arm. “Wait. Something’s not—”
Jam slipped out of his grip with surprisingly little effort. “Don’t try to stop me, stranger. This is my city, and no pirate’s gonna—”
The rest of her words were swallowed by the sound of the impact; a dozen or so meters ahead of them, the debris from the ship smashed into the ground with a startling percussion. Jam finally halted as she stared at the strange purple mass that was now imbedded in the stone street. She gave Sol a shove. “What is that?”
Sol frowned. It looked like no one had been hit by the bizarre meteorite, but there were a lot of people still out in the open, and beginning to crowd around it. Something tingled at the back of his neck in warning. It wasn’t the familiar aura of a Gear, though. It was…less natural than that.
Whatever it was moved—twitched, a little, like an injured insect. Sol finally jarred back to life and began pushing through the crowd once more. “Get away from it!” he shouted, already drawing his sword. The sight of Fireseal’s gleaming blade drove several people away, even if they weren’t yet wary of the shifting projectile. “Stand back, all of you!”
The men and women closest to the thing looked up, and seemed about to back off as he’d instructed. One woman wasn’t quick enough, and neither was Sol. He was still a few meters away when five long, clawed fingers burst through her back.
The crowd’s wary curiosity shifted quickly to panic as the woman’s blood spurted out onto the closest bystanders. Sol clenched his jaw and set his feet; all at once the crowd was a mob, surging with cries and curses away from what was by now clearly some kind of creature. Sol did his best to hold his ground despite the wave of frantic bodies scrambling past him. As the area around the creature thinned, he was finally granted a view of its unusual appearance.
Raven straightened, flicking the woman’s corpse from his arm. Though Sol had never seen something quite like this—his senses still insisted this was no Gear—he was already preparing his magic for a fight. As soon as he had more room…
Raven didn’t wait for the people to clear away. As soon as his eyes met Sol’s through the crowd he grinned darkly, and abruptly leapt into the air. Sol tensed, but there were still too many of the city folk churning about him, and any burst of magic or sweep of his sword would have taken several of them down with this new foe. It wasn’t like him to care about things like that. But as the monster bore down on him he only lifted his sword at an angle before him, hoping to catch at least some part of his enemy when he landed.
The pair collided heavily, Sol thrown to his back with the weight against his chest. A few of the fleeing spectators were dragged down with them into the heap. He felt his sword lodge in flesh of some kind but it didn’t seem to stop Raven in the slightest; sharpened talons flashed out at him, tearing long gashes along his face. If the fall hadn’t jarred his aim, he might have torn Sol’s throat out.
“What the fuck are you?” Sol hissed, twisting Fireseal with one hand while the other landed a heavy punch to the side of the creature’s jaw. The claws continued to scrape at him, drawing blood from his arm and chest, but that didn’t stop him from continuing his savage blows to Raven’s jaw and throat. “Get off!”
“Hi-YAH!”
A red, high heeled shoe entered Sol’s vision for a mere fraction of a second. As unexpected as the aid was it caught Raven even more off guard. The beast reeled back with a short cry, vanishing for a moment into the last of the staggering crowd.
Sol scrambled to his feet, Fireseal humming in his grip as he got his bearings. He shook his head and flicked blood in all directions, but by then the wounds were already closing. “Jam?”
“What is that thing?” Jam repeated, and Sol was annoyed to see her standing almost protectively in front of him. “Is it a Gear?”
Sol stepped up beside her, watching as, a few meters away, Raven pushed to his feet. It wasn’t until then that Sol realized Jam had thrust the heel of her nice shoe through his eye socket. Bits of gore were sliding down the side of his face along with the blood. And he was smiling.
“It’s not a Gear,” Sol muttered, by now pretty confident in his assessment. “It’s…something different.” He bit back the opinion that it might have been something worse.
“I am Raven,” the creature introduced suddenly. He jerked Jam’s shoe from his face to be tossed aside, and with a finger scooped some of the bloody ooze from his cheek back into the injured socket. Sol and Jam both cringed at the disgusting display as Raven’s eye was reformed perfectly. “I already know who you are, Sol Badguy.”
Sol’s expression darkened. Jam’s heels were at least three inches high—enough that her blow should have struck to this ‘Raven’s’ brain. And still he was unhindered. “What are you?”
“Something inhuman,” Raven replied easily. “Like you.” He shook his head, allowing his long hair to fall into order down his back. “But I didn’t come here for you. I’ve already done my job.”
“You mean the ship?” Sol’s fingers clenched. If a monster like this was working for someone—
“You bastard!” Jam shouted suddenly beside him. “Don’t think you can terrorize my city and get away with it!” She tensed for a jump.
“Jam, wait—” Sol reached for her but by then it was too late; Jam propelled herself through the air with a powerful jump. As she extended her leg for a kick the limb was bathed in the light of her ki, driving her at an incredible speed toward Raven’s already injured face.
Raven made no move to dodge the blow; the bone of her heel struck him firmly between the eyes, driving him back several steps as Jam landed effortlessly on her feet. She was grinning in accomplishment. But Sol knew better than to think she had done any real damage. Even as Raven regained his balance Sol could feel a swell of magic from him. He darted forward. “Jam!”
Raven spread his fingers, and Sol didn’t wait to see what kind of magic he would unleash on them. He circled an arm around Jam’s waist, drawing her with him to his knees as he planted Fireseal before them. His own magic burst from the eager blade in a swell of swirling fire. The impact of Raven’s magic came a moment later. There was a deafening hiss, the sting of heated steam wafting back and stinging his exposed skin. He felt Jam cringe as the burning vapor bit at her bare legs and arms. But he kept the pressure of his fire constant, driving Raven’s power back until they both lost their stamina and stopped, gasping.
Raven staggered back a step as bits of remaining moisture fell from his open palm. Sol didn’t move. He still didn’t trust that the creature had sustained any injury, or was even weakened from the battle of energies.
Raven laughed, a low, almost weary sound. Only when he lowered his hand did Sol relax minutely. “Well done,” Raven complimented. “He was right about you after all.”
“He?” Sol tightened his arm around Jam’s waist when she began to squirm. If Raven was retreating, he had no intention of letting her provoke him again. “What are you talking about?”
“You’ll understand soon enough.” Raven took another step back, looking honestly about to depart. “We’ll meet again. Fredrick.”
Despite having no previous intentions of detaining the strange man, Sol’s heart lost a beat when he mentioned his name. He straightened. “What?”
But Raven only smirked. He hopped lightly into the air, and before Sol could even begin to decide if he were going to give chase Raven was enveloped in a bright, swirling aura. His figure seemed to ripple, like waves in a pond, as he slowly dissolved from sight. It only took a moment for him to disappear entirely.
Sol sighed, and finally let Jam go as he pushed to his feet. He had expended more magic defending from Raven’s attack than he’s realized, and the sudden fatigue made him glad he hadn’t had the chance to challenge Raven again.
Jam, however, was clearly not satisfied. “What the hell?” she demanded, rubbing at the faint burns along her arms. “You let him go! And you stopped me from taking him out.”
“You wouldn’t have been able to anyway,” Sol assured her, though it earned him her heavy glare. “It’s probably better that he left.” His sigh was almost a growl. “Whatever the hell he really was.”
“If not a Gear, what else?” Jam glanced around, and was relieved to see the natives beginning to peek out their windows and come out from behind the vender carts. Other than the woman Raven had torn apart, there seemed to be only minor injuries. “You saw him fall out of the damn sky, too.”
“Yeah.” He wasn’t happy to admit he didn’t know anything living that could do something like that without injury. Save maybe Justice. But he dared not mention that name with so many people still around. “Whatever. It’s gone. Let’s just be glad he didn’t decide to wipe your beloved city out.”
Jam crossed her arms, still glaring at him as she kicked off her other shoe. Suddenly she glanced up. “The ships,” she recalled. “They’re still coming down.” She turned about; by now the airships were far ahead of them, still heading in a steady decline towards the city’s edge. Without another word she resumed her chase.
Sol’s shoulders sagged. His interest had been in the ship’s attacker, not pirates or merchants or whatever else. But then the remembered Raven’s words. Whatever Raven had been sent to do, the answer was on that falling ton of steel. The only clue he had as to what he’d just fought, and who it was working for.
He scraped some more of the blood from his face and started off after Jam again.
*****
Johnny tightened his already white-knuckled grip on the ship’s hull. It wasn’t often that he was out of options, but there was no denying that was his situation at present. Dizzy was still clinging to him, her breath fast against his ear. And they were still falling, so fast that it was nauseating, and he couldn’t hear anything but the high whistle of the wind tearing at him.
They had to get off before the ship hit. No matter how gently May was able to put the ships down, the impact would still be enough to throw them, especially with his grasp as weak as it already was. He grimaced as he tried to twist, viewing their surroundings. “Dizzy?”
“Johnny.” Her arms tightened around his neck. “We’re…going to crash, aren’t we?”
“Yeah…” Johnny smiled grimly. “I’m afraid so.”
Dizzy was silent for a moment, her fingers curling in the back of his coat. They were pressed so close that he felt her gulp. “I have an idea.”
“Now would be a good time for one.”
Dizzy relaxed her hold a little; Johnny grimaced as she pressed at his shoulders, pushing herself higher up his body. And then blushed, when she stopped with his face smashed between her breasts. He had to turn his head to keep from being smothered. “What are you doing?”
“Trust me, Johnny,” Dizzy told him, her voice barely audible over the wind. Her legs parted around his ribs, fitting their bodies closer together. When her tail swayed it knocked between his knees.
Johnny smiled ironically. At least there might not have been any better way for a man to die….
“Hold on,” Dizzy told him as she spread her wings flat against the hull.
It wasn’t until then that Johnny really realized what she was up to, but he didn’t have enough time to protest. Dizzy braced her feet against the ship behind her, and with a quiet cry pushed them away from the shuddering steel. Johnny let go of the cleat as he felt the press of her body—there was a single, terrifying instant when he felt himself slip before he was able to wrap his arms around her. But Dizzy’s hands were still fisted in his coat, and her thighs tightened around his middle to keep him from falling. Gasping in relieved laughter Johnny tightened his arms around her as they sailed away from the ship, gliding on Dizzy’s long wings.
Once they were far enough away Dizzy stretched her wings out further, providing them with a broad canopy to slow their descent. It probably still wouldn’t be the easiest landing, but at least they were going much slower now, and with less strain to Johnny’s weary fingers.
He sighed against her stomach. “Good job, Dizzy. That’s my girl.”
He wasn’t sure if Dizzy heard him, but her felt her give his head a little squeeze as they continued down.
Ahead of them, the pair of ships continued on. Johnny and Dizzy watched hopefully as Mayship finally cleared the edge of the city, bringing them into a forest of bamboo. The tall green spires parted and snapped before the crippled vessels, and soon the Korean tradeship was finally set down among the thin trees. Mayship released the towlines, and though the rescued ship gave a lurch, it seemed to have settled as peacefully as it could. Mayshship herself continued on, gaining altitude.
“Are they leaving us?” Dizzy said worriedly. They approaching the ground themselves now, and he could feel her tense in preparation.
“No,” Johnny assured. “Bejing has a Global Police headquarters near here. They won’t be able to land. Don’t worry.” He gave her a squeeze. “They’ll come back for us.”
“Oh, yes. Of course.”
The pair fell silent as they completed their descent. As Johnny had suspected it still wasn’t the comfiest of landings; his feet hit first, and were dragged for a bit before Dizzy folded her wings and sent them both falling to the ground. Johnny grunted as he flopped to his back with Dizzy dropping on top of him. The impact made his thigh ache all over again, but otherwise they seemed to have landed without harm.
“How’s that,” Johnny chuckled, letting his arms fall. At least the soil here was soft; he would never be so grateful for earth beneath him again. “We survived.”
Dizzy giggled breathlessly above him as she stretched her weary wings and arms. “Yes, Johnny.”
The two of them remained still for a moment, just catching their breath. Finally Dizzy’s embarrassment outweighed her fatigue, and she picked herself up off the equally tired pirate. “Are you all right?” she asked with some concern, trying to get another peek of his thigh. “I don’t think I was able to heal it very well before.”
“I’m all right,” Johnny quickly assured. “Lost enough blood for one day, but it’s closed over now.” He pushed himself up but didn’t make it very far; now that they were on the ground and out of danger, his arms felt like jelly. “Help me up, would you? We should go see if anyone on that ship survived…”
Dizzy frowned slightly, but nodded, and helped pull Johnny to his feet. There was a moment of laughter between them as they both tottered a little. But finally they were walking—limping, in Johnny’s case—towards the now silent merchant ship.
The hull was mostly intact, save the long gash in the port side and broken engine. It was the port wing that had taken the most damage in the fall. Johnny and Dizzy approached carefully, wary that whatever had attacked them in the air might have left something behind. But when Johnny tapped on the side what followed was the startled gasp of a woman from somewhere inside. “Thank God, at least someone’s alive,” Johnny sighed. But his gaze was swimming a little, so he touched Dizzy’s arm to urge her forward. “Will you go see? There might be people who need healing.”
Dizzy nodded seriously. “All right, Johnny.” Tucking her wings in as much as she could she crouched down, and crawled through the ripped opening in the ship’s side.
Johnny waited until she was inside before letting himself slip to the ground. “Haven’t been this worn out in a while,” he chuckled, finally taking a moment to check himself for injuries. His thigh had indeed stopped bleeding, but it still stung like mad. His hands and arms were going to be very sore in a few hours from clinging to the side of the ship, not to mention the hand-shaped bruises that were no doubt already darkening his neck.
“Someone,” Johnny declared with a sigh, leaning back, “is due for a vacation.”
Footsteps rustled closer through what remained of the bamboo, and Johnny tensed, struggling to his feet once more. Already weakened and without his sword there wasn’t much he could do if Raven had decided to chase him down after all. When two very distinctively human figures appeared through the trees, he slumped raggedly. “My heart can’t take this.”
“What happened to you?” Sol grunted as he stepped closer, Jam beside him. “You look like shit.”
“You, too,” Johnny countered, indicating his face, which was still covered in drying blood. “Did she do that?”
“Listen, you pirate,” Jam snapped at him in Chinese, marching forward. “We don’t want your kind here. I don’t care if it was you or that freak that took the ship down, but you’re outta here!”
Johnny held his hands up in surrender. “I don’t speak Chinese,” he said sheepishly.
“Oh? How ‘bout now?” Jam muttered, switching to Global tongue. It wasn’t much easier to understand, with her accent. “I was saying—”
“Hold on.” Sol rolled his eyes as he stepped forward. “I have some questions for you,” he said, glaring at Johnny. “And you’re going to answer.”
Johnny sighed. He was pretty sure he’d had more than enough excitement. “Come on, Badguy, I’ve had enough trouble with monsters for one day. Give me a break, will ya?”
That made Sol pause, to Johnny’s satisfaction. “So you fought that thing. No wonder you look awful.”
Johnny returned his frown. “You saw it, too?”
Their conversation was interrupted with the appearance of Dizzy crawling through the wrecked airship hull. She blinked in surprise to see Johnny wasn’t alone. Her gaze hesitated on Sol before sliding to Jam, and she gasped. “Miss Kuradoberi!”
Jam, who had been stubbornly ignoring the others, jumped and whipped around. “Dizzy!” she cried. “I thought I turned you in!”
Dizzy shrank back with a nervous smile. “Well, yes, but…”
“Enough,” Sol said gruffly. “We have more important things to worry about.”
“Oh! That’s right…” Dizzy moved out of the way of the opening, reaching back to help a middle-aged woman through. She was bleeding from a small wound on her forehead that dripped red into her thick black hair. She was murmuring quietly to herself; Johnny’s eyes widened when he recognized the language.
“I can’t understand her,” Dizzy said, helping her to her feet. “It looks like…there were only two survivors.”
Johnny limped closer, keeping one hand against the side of the ship as he motioned to Dizzy with the other. “Give her to me. I’ll talk to her.”
Dizzy nodded, helping the woman towards him. He cleared his throat. His Japanese was probably rusty, but he could at least manage a simple consolation. “It’s all right,” he told her, giving her a smile. “You’re Japanese, right? It’s all right now.”
The woman stared up at him with wide, startled eyes, and when she realized what Johnny had said to her she launched suddenly into a torrent of words, falling against his chest with what sounded like pleas. It was much too fast for him to pick up much, and he tried to calm her by holding her a bit closer. “Slowly, slowly. My Japanese is very bad…”
Sol glared at him, a harsher version of the baffled stare Jam was fixing him and the woman. “She’s Japanese?” he demanded. “What the hell is she doing here?”
“Hold on,” Johnny muttered before turning back to the woman. He touched her cheek gently to keep her attention and calm her down. “Slowly,” he tried again in Japanese. “Tell me what happened.”
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