It was the dead of night as a veiled man stood on the pier, overlooking a deathly silent sea. The man blended into the darkness of night, a mysterious opposing figure whose piercing eyes darted around his surroundings as he tightly gripped onto the chains binding another figure next to him.
The figure in question was a tall and fit man with neck-length brown hair, his eyes covered in blindfolds—It was none other than Tommy! The chains binding him tightened around his neck, with another set connecting to the hands behind his back, which connected to another set binding his feet together as he sat kneeling with his back hunched forward. Clothed in rags, one would assume he was a slave, prisoner, or captive.
The veiled man’s eyes snapped into the target—an ominous galleon approaching ever so slowly from the depths of the darkness of the sea, a feint light glowing from the interior of the vessel. The galleon docked, the nose pointing further ahead, towards the river upwards before the anchor dropped.
The veiled man’s eyes shot up at the ship’s side, at the two figures looking down at him from the shadows. They traded a nod before climbing down the rope ladder and landing on the pier with a resounding thud.
The veiled man struck a match before lighting the lamp next to him, using his free hand to carry it and pour light on the faces of his business partners: A yellow-eyed young man and his purple-eyed partner, both dressed in ragged coats matching their eye color.
The yellow-eyed boy knelt towards the chained captive, chuckling as he turned to the veiled person:
“I can’t believe it, you actually got Tommy. How the hell did you do that?” He asked.
“We captured him at a bar. Dead drunk. He couldn’t throw a proper punch.” The veiled man responded with a raspy hush before slapping the captive, “But he gave us trouble, too much trouble. He couldn’t fight but he was too hard to capture.”
“It’s Tommy, what did you expect.” The purple-eyed girl interjected mockingly, “Not that you and your friends would’ve captured him without outnumbering him a thousand to one.”
“Mind your tone, pest.” The veiled man grunted, “The deal is not done. If you want him, I want to see it. Good money. One million Valns, now.”
“Alright, boss-man.” The yellow-eyed boy said, climbing back to the ship to fetch the money.
An eerie silence loomed over the exchange as the veiled man waited for his reward, his eyes darting around as prior, with a hint of cautious fear in his gaze and voice as he spoke:
“Pest, where is he?” The veiled man asked.
“Hm, where is who?” The girl wondered.
“That man, where is he?”
“Oh, him. He’s asleep.”
“Asleep? He doesn’t want to come here?”
“He doesn’t care for the exchange. I assure you, he has no interest in following or killing you.”
“Promise?”
“Yeah, whatever.”
The silence loomed over the conversation, the veiled man seeming relieved upon hearing the girl’s reassuring words. Suddenly, he noticed a feint smile creep up her face before a voice called out from the galleon’s deck.
“Over here!”
As his eyes shot up, the veiled man caught a glimpse of the yellow-eyed boy looking down with a crossbow aimed at him. Powerless, he froze in place before the arrow pierced through his skull and dropped him dead from the pier and into the sea with an echoing splash. The yellow-eyed boy chuckled as he jumped down from the ship:
“Dumb son of a bitch, thinks he can outsmart us! Ain’t that right, Pura?”
“Keep it down, Yeli. He’s sleeping, I don’t want to wake him up.”
“Yeah, yeah, who cares, I’m sure it’ll be alright if we show him that we have Tommy. How happy will he be?”
“Don’t wake him up, he will kill us either way.”
“Yeah, blah blah. Anyway, you go back and keep watch on Ora. I’ll get Tommy on the ship. And while you’re at it, bring up the anchor, I’ll set sail after.”
With a nod, the purple-eyed girl climbed up the galleon while the yellow-eyed boy carried the captive on his shoulder before forcing him onto the ship. The anchor rose, and the galleon thus set sail into the river, leaving the blood-stained pier.
Later into the night, the galleon drifted silently and slowly through the river, the sounds of crickets and the water stream filling the void which was the deathly silence of the night and the forest around the watercourse.
While Yeli was navigating the ship through the river, his hand fixated on the steering wheel, Pura sat inside the ship on a chair, keeping watch over the captive man sitting at the far corner, while an orange-haired girl dressed in a double-button coat matching her hair color sat on the opposite corner, hugging her legs as she sat in silence.
“What?” Pura asked in a frustrated tone, fiddling with a knife. “You’ve been giving me those looks since we got back from the pier, what is it?”
“I don’t want this.”
“Don’t want this?!” Pura lashed out, “When we picked you up from Lamanca, you wanted to come here with us, now you feel regretful?”
“I don’t want to be used like this anymore.”
“You were used like this back then like a slave. We offered you an ultimatum, and you chose us. If you don’t want this, I’m more than happy to throw you off the ship!” Pura said, jolting from her seat.
“…jerk.”
As Ora averted her gaze, Pura glared at her with a frown. Her face softened as she turned towards the captive—Tommy—sitting on the floor. She knelt towards him, and chuckled as she spoke:
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“You won’t be used much longer, I assure you. We finally have what we want, we finally have the final piece of the puzzle. Now we can finally re—”
Her statement was rudely interrupted by the unexpected snoring of Tommy, causing her to flinch before readjusting herself with an embarrassed blush.
“Sleeping?! He was sleeping all along?!” She exclaimed in frustration, punching the captive to knock him awake. “Wake up, you stupid old man!”
“Hm?” Tommy uttered in a drowsy voice, “Are we there yet?”
“Have you been sleeping this whole time?!”
“Uh, who are you?” Tommy asked, blindfolded yet aware of a change in scenery. “How did I get into this ship? I was at the beach just a moment ago.”
“You were actually sleeping! For crying out loud, I had to hold so many secrets from spilling out for no reason!”
“Oh, really?” Tommy asked, readjusting himself into a comfortable position. “Spill the truth, sister.”
With another punch, Pura knocked the happy-go-lucky attitude out of the man. Her frustration was apparent as she retorted: “Be as carefree as you want, you son of a bitch. You’re ours now, you’ll get what you deserve.”
“Get what I deserve? Am I stupid or are you the bad guys?” He wondered, “Speaking of, where’s that mean glare guy? I swear he was off to sell me to some pirate crew or something.”
“He’s dead.”
“Oh, so you are the bad guys? Oh, so this is the pirate ship after all!” He said with juvenile joy, seeming as to have connected the dots. “Boy, I was wondering when you guys would show up. This act has been getting tiring.”
“Act?”
“Obviously, you silly little girl. Did you think I would let you capture me this easily? I’m Tommy!” He laughed, “And I could use the help of a little, ahem, SPARROW!”
With the sudden call, a snarky smile crept up Tommy’s face as Pura and Ora were left distraught, trying to make sense of what the man did. Suddenly, the sound of a nearing shout resonated from outside. Ora glanced from the window towards the source of the sound, only for a figure to appear out of thin air.
A short, skinny boy no older than fourteen, with messy brown hair and a pair of glasses, came flying from the forest, his face blown back from the whiplash into a frightened expression as—what seemed to be—the thrusters from his jetpack launched him towards the window, crashing through it and slamming onto Ora before rolling around and smacking into the wall.
“What the hell?!” Pura shouted, “Yeli! Intruders!”
As Pura turned around to face Tommy, she was taken aback by the man towering over her, his beady blue eyes looking down at her as he wore a shirt the same color as the rags, with the chains binding him turning into a pair of hathphools.
“Do you think brown suits me? I don’t wear it often because it displays blood a bit too much, but hey, it’s not my blood I’m worried about.” He said before he pointed his finger down.
Suddenly, Pura felt an immense pressure, a pressure amounting to thousands of tons placed on her shoulder, slamming her into the floor of the ship and cracking it from pressure. With a glance to his side, Tommy smiled upon the sight of the brown-haired boy struggling to stand up as he readjusted his clothes—comprised of an open brown vest, a white shirt with rolled-up sleeves, and a five-pocket bandolier across his chest.
“Tommy!” The boy spoke in a shaky voice, “I felt things crawl up my legs! The forest was too dark and I couldn’t see anything! I was too scared to move!”
“Flamboyant, Adrian! What a wonderful entrance! You’re making me prouder every day!”
“I regret going on this mission!”
“Oh, you’re still young, you’ll grow out of your cowardice soon.” Tommy chuckled but was quickly silenced as he felt the ship come to a halt and the anchor drop. “Prepare yourself, Adrian. We have a spectacle to give.”
The pressure weighing on Pura faded away as Tommy dodged an arrow from behind, his eyes glancing at Yeli who stood with a crossbow on the stairs. Immediately, he dodged an orange lightning bolt from Ora lying on the ground on the other end, not breaking a sweat or his smile as he dodged effortlessly.
“Adrian, watch and learn!” He said, clapping his hands in the air. “Music!”
Bolts of orange lightning dashed at Tommy, but the latter easily evaded them. He even got bored and began to dance for a moment before he pointed his finger at Ora, slamming her onto the wall with an invisible force of pressure.
“Bastard!” Pura shouted, flailing her knife at the man in an attempt to tear his throat out. But Tommy was unfazed as he swerved left and right, eventually breaking into a hip dance. “Fight me, coward!”
With a punch to the abdomen, Tommy sent Pura crashing towards the wall with great pleasure and a smug smile. He turned behind him, facing Yeli with his Sabre drawn for a duel. Tommy bowed elegantly before stepping towards the yellow-eyed boy and clashing his fist with the latter’s blade.
“Damn, you’re a strong old senile!” Yeli commented, his hands shaking as he pushed the sword.
“I’m still young, boy! Not even thirty-six! And I’m stronger as you can see!”
“But I’m faster!”
He retracted his blade before delivering a hail of stabs at Tommy, but the man was once again unperturbed as he blocked the stabs with the palms of his hands, matching the absurd speed of the yellow-eyed boy. Tommy side-stepped from the lightning bolts directed at him by Ora, while toying with Pura as he evaded the cuts from her knife.
“And…” Tommy said as he pushed the three away from him. He raised his arms in the air before stomping the floor with overwhelming power, sending a pressure wave that knocked the three from their balance: “The end! Thank you, thank you, ladies and gents. We’ll never do a show again here!”
Amongst the groans of pain, the claps of a bewildered and gleeful Adrian cut through the thick air as Tommy bowed gratefully to the show of respect from the boy.
“Thank you, Adrian. It’s good to have loyal fans wherever I’m around.”
“It’s my pleasure. It never gets old seeing you fight, Tommy.”
“Much obliged!” He breathed a hearty laugh, “So, not so regretful now, are you?”
“Well, I’m still angry about you leaving me in the forest for a few days, but I guess it’s alright. We have the orange-haired girl too.”
“Precisely! It’s never a waste going with me on a quest.” He said, “Now, let’s get these—”
Suddenly, Tommy froze, his gleeful expression reduced to a blank. The noise of the door opening behind him didn’t bother him, not as much as the pressure of the one opening it. As if the shadow of death loomed behind him, caressing his soul with a gentle choke. Tommy, for the first time in what felt like an eternity, felt a true, unfiltered, primal fear erupting from the depths of his mind as he turned around.
“My head hurts.” A tall, pale man with midnight blue hair and dark eyes, dressed in a turtleneck sweater, stood at the doorway of the room, weakly leaning on it, as if he were to collapse if it weren’t for the wooden support. His sunken, hooded eyes glared sharply at the man before they darted across the surroundings: “I wasn’t supposed to wake up so early. I’m not happy about this.”
The voice of the man sent chills up and down the spines of the pirates, their eyes shifted towards the man with a look of great terror, fearing the outcome of the heinous act of not letting him sleep. Fighting the uncontrollable shaking, Yeli bowed his head before apologizing in a shaky voice:
“Midnight, please, we didn’t do it on purpose—”
“Kill the boy.” He interrupted, seeming to care about nothing else. “Now.”
“Yes!” Pura and Yeli replied in unison, their eyes directed at the boy with an unhinged fear and ferocity behind them.
“Adrian!” Tommy said as he pointed at Ora, sending a wave of pressure crashing onto her body and knocking her unconscious. “Take her, and run away with the jetpack!”
“Tom—”
“Now!”
The boy, shaken by Tommy’s serious demeanor, felt a strange rush in his body as he drew a pack of cigarettes from one of his bandolier pockets. The tips of the cigarettes were laced in metallic red. As he bit the tip of one-off, he threw it towards the two pirates before snatching Ora from the floor and jumping out of the window he came crashing from.
With a flick of the switch on his jetpack, Adrian flew across the river and into the forest before crashing down as his thrusters ceased working. As he shook the concussion away, the sound of an explosion erupted from the ship.
“Damn it, it ran out of coal! Now of all times?!” He said, his eyes darting across the forest before he turned back to the burning ship. “Tommy, please be safe.”
Having no time to look back, Adrian carried Ora on his back before he ran forward, deep into the forest, driven by sheer instinct despite the absence of sight or a sense of direction. He was fueled by only one thing, the fear he saw in Tommy’s eyes, one he never imagined was real, never thought existed, never saw before.
What drove him to such was a mystery to Adrian. But one thing he knew…he should run without turning back.