Pure black, like the deep night sky but without the sprinkles of twinkles or the streaks of colors. An abyss without reflection, unaffected by its environment as if any environmental effects fail to reach the other side, getting lost in the bottomless pit before the light can bounce back around. There’s no indication of even the shape along the tunnel, or if there is one past the aperture, for any assumption of there being a physical continuation is simply that: an assumption, for perhaps this aperture is the deepest component.

Perhaps though that’d call into question how deep those closely packed rows of stakes drive down, spikes protruding from the surface as black as the airy darkness in the center, similarly colorless as it would likely be imperceivable if not for the thin white glow along the edges like an outline, a glow that pulsates and throbs chaotically. Despite those spikes best resembling teeth, they do not align the jaw like regular ones do, for they are not limited by a single row along the roof and another across the floor. Instead, they spiral seemingly infinitely, at least for as far as they can be seen towards the opening, until the darkness overwhelms their white glow and they lose any presence.

They spiral out with all the teeth being fairly similar in size, not particularly large as it’s more along the scale of a K9’s, but it’s the sheer quantity of them that draws concern. Instead better described as blades of grass or a large circular rack of needles, the individual teeth being all but an insignificant piece in a substantially dense field, all of those teeth point away from the abyss, forward, from the mouth in the center of the otherwise featureless slender black head. The mouth was open, but it didn’t even seem like there was a jaw to allow for the mechanism, as those muscles are not present on the head. It’s not as though the mouth is simply a hole in the head either though, as there is a visible stretch, for it’s more like the whole head was unraveled from the center, being pushed open, the blooming of an unholy flower.

That head cannot glare for it has no eyes, but it is oriented in one direction, the same direction as the many other heads behind it faces, a black legion amongst a white canvas where the heavy gusts blow clouds of snow that shroud the figures like smoke. Countless of them stationary face the same way, at least those who have surfaced as others continue to rise from beneath the white floor. Every second, more continue to surface, all of them having been grown from the same source: that great black tree behind them.

That tree remains behind all the entities, that one single construct at the very peak of the great white mountain where no soil reaches, only rocks on the surface buried beneath snow. But the tree does not hoist rich green leaves to absorb the sunlight nor does its roots draw essence from the earth for sustenance. The reach of its branches to spread across the sky is not done with the same intent as a traditional tree as its primary purpose is not its own survival, as something that has never lived does not concern itself with death. Its purpose is not to maximize its coverage below the sky, but rather to minimize the passage up to it from below, as they and the other surrounding roots that burrow from beneath the ground draw over the sky like a haphazard wireframe forming an imprisoning dome.

All those humanoids just glare in the same direction, towards the clumped mass, the majority of whom lived in the colossal golden train that now is sunken into the ground behind them, leaving them effectively stranded on this climate vastly isolated from civilization. The pirates lack a uniform appearance, some of them dressed in sleek professional suits and others in bombastically bright exoskeletal armors with neon-lit metal bones, and their numbers greatly outweigh that of this newly appeared dark legion, yet oddly enough none of them are quick to take action against these beings who carry a hostile aura.

Despite the fascination for action and violence which many of these pirates oddly carry on their sleeve, they all recline back, maintaining a safe distance from the creatures, as they’re not even amongst the front lines. Some of them greaten that distance with gentle steps back, bumping into their comrades as the sheer density of the crowd makes movement a struggle. Ironically enough, those closest to the legion don’t move, and furthermore they’re not even current members of those pirates, as at the front stands the three Bellators facing straight on with their feet planted into the absorbing ground, side by side.

In the center stands the golden cyborg, her face flat similar to the monsters and with slight inhuman proportions given her claws, yet there’s a distinction as her body very clearly is made of metal, machinery built by the person who wears it or rather integrates with it. Dana’s posture also has human elements particularly in the way she stands tall with one foot planted forward, however she leans more on her back foot as an indication of uncertainty. Both of the cannons extruded from her shoulder remain stationary as despite their capability of movement they wish not to draw alarm.

She uses her metal body as a shield, slightly in front of both Kokei and Ekitai who linger beside her, both of them similarly apprehensive though without any raised arms. Kokei’s body remains stale without any electricity, her wide pink eyes darting between the many alien beings, her face tense in the fear of the unknown as these were entities she was unfamiliar with. Her hands hold each other in search for any reassurance even if self actualized, her stance lacking much confidence. Next to her Ekitai exercises caution with a steady stance, leaning backwards as well though he keeps his hand armed with his handgun by his hip, the barrel aiming down but the handle tightly gripped. His pointer finger rests on the trigger, his arm relaxed to allow for quick and sudden movements if needed. His senile face exudes a natural stoicism, those yellow eyes not excessively wide, his cheeks only naturally sunken but his mouth stays passively shut. This attitude could be interpreted as firmness, but with his equal unwillingness to make the first act, it’s clear he too is unsure what those actions would result in.

None of the three know, and yet they still stand their ground in the front of the line, the first that the entities stare at through their gaping mouths, silently, creepily.

For now they just keep a close watch on those dark creatures, who also just stare passively with only about a ten foot separation. A standoff between masses, but against an opponent who can’t be read as it’s unsure if they can even think. It’s unsure what they even are.

What the frontmost one does though is abruptly jerk its head to face Kokei to whom it emits a horrific echoing screech with the abrasiveness of metal grinding against porcelain amplified with an ethereally deep gargling right before lunging off the ground for her, throwing its body haphazardly in a sudden charge.

Immediately Kokei stumbles backwards in terror, yelping from the horror of being so randomly targeted, but stepping forward on the other side is Ekitai who raises his handgun and finally presses the trigger, resulting in the coils around the barrel flaring up before that barrel ejects a vibrant green bolt with a radioactive glow. That shot is targeted straight for the forehead of the charger, centimeters above the mouth, making contact where it should then begin the process of rapidly degrading the face with an acidic poison that’d spread over the body. That acid does in fact begin to spread over the body, so much so that it slips off the face entirely, revealing it completely unaffected with insignificant deterrence to its advance as it simply lands on the snow before scurrying up to its feet in a continuing chase for Kokei, its target unchanged.

The acidic shot is completely ineffective after the last remnants of the agent slips off, simply falling to the white floor where it only then begins burning through the soft material, Ekitai stumbles back with shock cast on his face, perhaps one of his most intense solutions completely nullified.

The only one not to step back, both of Dana’s shoulder cannons focus on the one charger before unleashing a rapid golden barrage at the speed of jet machine guns, screeching in rapid highly pitched energy pulses as they light up the charger’s face so much it can hardly be observed.

That is only for about half a second though until its body lunges forward out of the golden flickers, again completely unhindered by the shots, still focused exclusively on Kokei with no reduction in speed. It doesn’t slow down until another radiating bolt is fired, this one blue and targeted not for the face or even torso but instead for the feet, where contact results in the quick burst of slime which spreads over both feet, at last seemingly to trap it as the advance is suspended despite trying to push forward with the swaying of its arms.

Even if it wasn’t a killshot, Ekitai judges the successful neutralization of the creature, watching the black lanky leg try to lift itself up but fail to do so. He nods to himself before glancing over to Kokei, who hides behind Dana’s golden body, peeking over her shoulder as that intense targeting had jittered her. She slowly begins to step to the side in relief after watching the creature struggle against the slime, and after Ekitai softly sighs he glances at Dana to mention, “We should mo-,” just as the leg lifts once again, stretching the slime up. As Ekitai returns his gaze due to that stretch, he’s shocked to watch that leg struggle once more against the slime, only this time for that seemingly indestructible blue slime to seamlessly tear apart from one lift of the leg, followed by the simple lifting of the other leg to then step past the botch of torn slime left in the snow.

Jaw dropped from the sudden nullification of what has been quite the reliable technique for fixing an opponent in place, Ekitai stumbles back which Kokei tries to do, but not faster than the creature who dashes straight for her in under a second, its arms flailing aimlessly but its mouth widening with a direct sight on the terrified superhuman. In fact, with the extension of the neck in a short lunge, the creature could bite a chunk from Kokei’s face if she wasn’t suddenly grabbed on the shoulder by a golden tentacle which yanks her in the air.

Tossed in the air, Kokei shrieks with her hands gripping the edge of the ten foot tentacle that protrudes from Dana’s shoulder, her body also airborne as propelled by the gentle golden glow from her soles. There are two other tentacles emerging from Dana’s back, both tips housing barrels that fire consistent laser beams of intense energy which don’t even repel the monster by an inch, leading to Dana thrusting herself backwards as a third tentacle wraps around Ekitai to carry him. Both Kokei and Ekitai are reeled away from the beast as in both of Dana’s palms golden wires begin to crawl upwards, forming a solid cube a few inches in width in each hand which takes a little under a second before she can grab both and toss them towards the ground.

Both cubes hit the ground simultaneously, landing in front of the creature about five feet apart, and upon contact they both begin rapidly expanding into long metal walls about ten feet tall which form barricades, the two converging where they then connect as the edges curve to attempt to form an enclosure. More cubes are formed in Dana’s hands and tossed further out, each of them expanding the wall wider to add further security to the barricade.

Gently Dana descends back to the ground a safe distance from the expanding walls, her golden claws touching the snow as Kokei is placed back down too before the tentacle lets go and pulls itself back inside the golden hide. Beside her already is Ekitai who nods to her before turning around, finding Rezzo, Mary, and Beagle standing almost right behind him, all three of them stunted by the acts of that strange creature. They exchange apprehensive glances as Kokei and Dana nod to each other in a silent exchange of assessing injuries, though all six of their attentions are brought forward when they hear that screeching again, but this time to a far greater extent as there’s not just one but a sea of them rising up, perhaps not perfectly synchronous yet ominously reminiscent of a battle cry.

Cautiously, Dana begins to take steps towards the golden wall which has finished building itself with a width of about twenty feet and height of ten, her shoulder cannons reverting back into her shoulders as they had proven themselves insufficient. While the wall itself is opaque meaning there’s no sight past it, there are sounds of grunts and shuffles, as though there were objects pushing up against each other, kicking the snow around.

Behind the cyborg and other Bellators, the three leaders of the Sea Hats just watch the chaos unfold, Mary facing Beagle, then Ekitai, and then the wall again, and that’s when she catches sight of two arms lifting above the wall from behind, tossed forward to grab onto the edge of the golden barrier. What’s worse, more pairs of arms begin to rise from behind the wall alongside the first one, all ascending rapidly.

Unable to look away from this uncomfortable sight, Mary’s eyes widens as she mutters, “What the…-?”

From behind the golden wall, about four pairs of arms have surfaced and grab the top edge, but neither of them pull. Instead, climbing from behind those arms are another four creatures, not climbing on the wall but instead on each other. As behind the wall, a large pile of humanoids have accumulated in those few seconds, not scaling the wall itself but instead using their numbers to quickly make a straight assault.

Along the top, the first few creatures climb high enough that they can simply throw themselves forward, tossing their bodies over the wall and down to the snow in front, bypassing the barricade. Not even a full second later, more climb in their place to drop down, leading to eight creatures in just a few seconds of their reveal, all of them landing on the floor before scurrying to their feet where they then face the group ahead, mouths open like hungry wolves. All of them begin to charge forward in sprints, running wildly with arms flailing without form, humanoid in shape and basic mechanical capabilities but lacking any representative behaviors.

Her barricade only buying a few seconds, Dana grunts as beside her steps forward Ekitai, his arm raised, his thumb swiping rapidly on his handgun’s screen as his pointer finger rapidly presses the trigger, firing a volley of differently colored bolts. A few more acidic shots are fired, though the ones that strike the humanoids simply make splashes that drip off, a lack of effect similar to most of the other bolts like sky blue ones and orange ones, the latter of which bursts in flames upon impact though those flames extinguish within a second without leaving a visible mark. Yellow and cyan bolts strike the horde though with no effect, the cyan shot causing the body to flicker the same color just once but no harm seems to pull down that struck creature.

Bolts that were capable of dismembering a human body in ways so grotesquely unique, able to warp a person in seemingly limitless ways that could lead to an agonizing death, and yet none of these bolts even manage to slow down the creatures. Frosty blue projectiles hit a few, causing their bodies to begin turning the same color as the frost attempts to consume them from the inside out, emitting cold vapor. That is all they do though, as that frost coloration fades away in failure, for they are unable to immobilize the targets which are more quickly approaching.

Gritting his teeth tensely, Ekitai’s face admits his current inability to push back the horde, throwing everything he has yet nothing sticks. Kokei, who stands to his side, gazes at his nervous expression, frowning at the understanding of his struggle. She faces forward just as Dana steps forward as both of her arms lift, each of them elongating into a long barrel as her knees widen to cylindrical pillars that drill into the ground for clamping strength, acquiring stability. Both arms morph into solid bodies of cannons the end of which extend a smooth, wide barrel, both of which flare synchronously.

At once, the two barrels expel thick golden energy projectiles with booms that blow the snow in front of her, recoiling her enough that her whole body quakes, only remaining standing due to her enhanced footing, snow blown upwards from the ground behind her as knockback. At the same time, the two shoulder cannons reshape larger than before, with wide barrels that brighten before unleashing concentrated beams as support, swiveling slowly to strike greater numbers.

Both projectiles, about a foot in length with the shape of a tank’s ordinance, land on different creatures, the impacts themselves erupting booms that shake the mountain, and yet they don’t even stagger the two back. Among the two energy beams that fail to apply any resistant forces to the monsters struck, another pair of those golden projectiles strike another two, resulting in the same indifference as others run through the rainbow of bolts that fail to affect them enough to even slow their advance, their numbers still growing as more climb over the walls.

Both Ekitai and Dana maintain their firepower, Dana launching another pair of shots every half second as her cannons require a slight cooldown, the barrels smoking constantly as Ekitai’s firing is far more rapid, almost akin to a machine gun even though every shot is manually triggered by his frail finger.

Next to them, Kokei watches tensely, recognizing that the creatures weren’t even being slowed, and soon they’d close the distance where Ekitai at least wouldn’t be as proficient. Her teeth clenched in desperation, she raises both arms which begin to flicker with pink sparks that grow as she aligns her focus on the horde. Electric beams pierce her pink irises from her gleaming pupil, and she unloads a swarm of complete pink arcs forth at the targets.

Amongst the colorful radiating bolts and large golden artillery–heavy shots and beams–, the creatures are met by the electric swarm which does cause their charges to stutter, their movements being briefly halted as if they were all shoved backwards. In a staggered state, more of the gunfire can land precisely on them with little they can do against it other than simply take the full force.

However, the black bodies of the creatures at the front lines oddly pulsate, or rather the white veins within them glow for just a moment, like an activation that is followed with a deep buzz sound. Those creatures then, albeit still struggling, begin to raise their legs forward once again, walking against the pink swarm at a pace they once again start accelerating into a resumption of their charge.

From relief given the soft smile on her face as at first her abilities seemed to have an effect, Kokei’s expression is washed in dread upon its quick nullification, same with Ekitai who had just for a moment thought they could at least hold them off.

Instead, more of the creatures begin to flash in the same way, and those again start to push against the swarm, inching more and more until they’re back to their original racing speeds, rendering the pink swarm still surrounding them nothing more than dancing lights, same as the gunshots that absorb into their hollow bodies.

Despite the solid stand, neither of the three Warriors seem to have an effect on the horde getting ever closer, causing Kokei to plant one foot backwards in apprehension as the stream that should be adequate in suspending targets proves ineffective, though like the other two she keeps her focus and fire steady regardless of the visibility of impact. Unknowingly though, another figure advances towards them from behind, their long orange hair swaying back and forth in the wind, approaching between the warriors with dark clouds misting from the closed hand.

Wincing anxiously, Ekitai keeps firing with his feet planted, knowing that the distance between him and the beasts is shrinking rapidly, though he’s unsure if he could even outpace them if he were to turn around this instant. Him and Dana both are hyperfocused on their barrages that neither of them notice the Rogue step between them, her fiery eyes blazing as she lifts her hand behind their backs.

Then, she releases a pressurized burst of her dark smoke in a forward stream past both of the former adversaries both of whom glance at her, the golden cyborg staggering to the side in fear of an ambush, only for that stream to instead target the field ahead where it spreads to consume the approaching creatures, their bodies becoming immediately surrounded for they don’t even try to avoid it. She cries out desperately yet boldly, “THAT SHOULD DISABLE THEIR POWERS, BEAGLE, NOW!”

Behind her launches the Knight straight in the air, his cloak’s inner blue glow flaring like his knuckles which are already aimed forward, both of which project intense concentrated beams of energy like lasers at a downward angle with such power that it blows his blonde hair back, similarly pulling Dana’s attention in an instinctual fear after having been shot at with that exact same beam just earlier as Kokei also nearly breaks formation after witnessing that same cloud that had depowered her in the prior skirmish.

This beam however is targeted not at her but her enemies, driving straight into the monsters in the clouds in sways that cause the beams to bend, able to capture a larger field of damage thus impacting more targets. Without any immediate effect, the two beams instead concentrate to the frontmost creatures, focusing its overwhelming power such that the creatures begin to sink into the ground from the pressure alone. However, it’s not enough to even pierce what would be assumed to be skin, leading to the monsters nearly closing the full distance to their prey, their mouths opening wide terrifyingly so. Even when the creatures are within the clouds that were capable of depowering an Exhuman’s abilities, the strange invulnerability doesn’t waver, no matter how much thicker the cloud gets as more mist is poured into it.

Behind not only the three fighting Bellators but also the two fighting Sea Hats, the remainder of the pirate army just stand at a further distance and watch in utter astoundment, none of them even raising an arm as they’re entranced by the strange sight.

It’s not the sight of the monsters that seems to fixate them, for a tall woman with superhuman muscles in a brute shape just watches with stunned eyes, murmuring to herself: “Wait…our captains are helping…the intruders…?” It’s that shock that captures the many other pirates around her, as if the emergence of these monsters somehow weren’t as intriguing now as the resistance being applied against them, or rather the sources of that resistance in tandem.

At the front lines, Ekitai’s weary face keeps a steady analysis of the ongoing assault which is currently lacking in their favor, none of his many diverse projectiles even managing to dent the bodies they hit. Despair begins to consume his yellow irises as even with the additional firepower from enemies now turned reinforcements, there isn’t enough visible progress to reliably keep this strategy and hope for success. Wincing in admission, he swipes one more before aiming slightly down and continuing his barrage with the sweeping of his arm, firing light gray bolts along an orthogonal line.

Each of those bolts absorb into the snow, and in about half a second in the exact line of fire, a row of snow rapidly rises from the ground, carrying a portion about a foot thick and rising with a curvature to about ten feet. The rising snow simultaneously hardens into blocks, forming what almost resembles an igloo which stretches wide enough to wrap around the horde, stopping them right before they could pass the line, allowing the bombardment to cease, the pink swarms and golden flashes halting too.

At last one of those bolts succeeds in the intent of its shot, albeit that intent was watered down as there wasn’t any hope of a permanent annihilation. All that can be bought is time, time that’s already ticking from the start as from within the igloo there can be heard the sound of scraping, causing some of the softer snow between blocks to dust off.

Feeling the clock as every tick is a heartbeat, Ekitai glances at Dana to whom he advises, “At least we know their direction, we just need to cover this front better-,” before his sleeve is pulled by Kokei who interjects softly, “Eki…we should move-,” to which Ekitai pauses to then glance over in the direction Kokei is facing as she’s not looking at him but instead off to the side, specifically to a cluster of those large black roots that had surfaced earlier, which have been humming with pulsations of its caustics.

Unlike earlier though, from the surface of these roots rise several pairs of black sticks that are now quickly identified as arms, arms with hands that grab onto the root to pull the heads out along with the neck and lanky bodies. Those heads turn towards the two facing them as well as the many more who catch on before stumbling back in horror when those heads begin to stretch open to reveal their mouths, aggressing far quicker than the first wave.

Murmurs and cries begin to surround Ekitai and Kokei who both turn their gazes in a panorama to find that nearly all of the other roots that have laid passive up until now are beginning to seep more creatures, said roots forming an enclosing semi circle thereby resulting in an immediate cornering. Pirates clump together more than ever to avoid the roots, however space begins shrinking fast as those creatures drop to the snow, picking themselves up to their feet and beginning their march inwards though at a crawling, creepy pace.

Almost every direction that Ekitai faces puts his sight onto another swarm of these alien beasts, all directions except for the one behind him, where the huge long golden train lays.

Standing amongst the crowd of his friends, new and old, Ekitai’s ideas are running thin for a man of seemingly boundless creativity. Upon hearing a man’s roar behind him, he frantically turns around to find that in front of a few marching closed-mouthed creatures stands a pirate dressed in a fancy suit with a long red fur cape similar to that of a medieval king, raising a greatsword as another pirate behind him in a black leather jacket with a flaming cross on his back holds his hand out cautiously, trying to calm that first man down only for that man to loudly gloat in a bold tone: “I DO NOT COWER LIKE THESE PEASANTS, I HAVE NO FEAR OF YOU FACELESS CREATURE! NOW BOW YOUR HEAD TO MY BLADE.”

In desperation, the man in the leather coat tries to grab the other pirate’s shoulder, nonetheless that pirate swings his greatsword at the creature’s neck, aiming for a swift decapitation as that creature oddly stops moving. His blade does successfully contact the neck, but that is where it abruptly stops to the man’s shock. That shock becomes agitation as he tries harder to push the blade deeper into the neck, growling under gritted teeth, his pride on the line. His comrade by his side continues to pull his shoulder, trying his hardest to pluck the prideful pirate away from the creature, but he fails to move him even an inch away.

Standing still, the creature with the blade to its neck simply raises its head before unhinging it to open its large mouth in the center of the face, the glowing teeth shimmering all the way down into the abyss of its throat.

Immediately the kingly pirate stumbles backwards in horror of the awakening, but before he can move his blade, the creature lowers its neck and bites through the center where it contacts the neck, effortlessly biting through the metal which snaps the greatsword in half. Thus even though the pirate has finally backed away, he’s met with the horrible sight of his own weapon broken in two, his jaw dropped in disbelief as his comrade desperately tries to drag him away from the creature who resumes its march. Finally the comrade in the leather jacket succeeds in pulling the kingly pirate back, as that pirate starts stumbling back more, his initial boastful confidence falling just after the first encounter.

Witnessing the danger that surrounds the group that may be partially composed of not the most level headed individuals but individuals nonetheless, Ekitai returns his gaze back to the golden train before he makes a dash straight for it, shouting as loud as he can which heightens the rasp in his voice: “GET INSIDE THE TRAIN! IT’S NOT SAFE OUT HERE,” before he fires several acidic shots at the wall.

Those shot, upon impacting the train’s metallic wooden surface, immediately begins its work of melting through the material, burning a hole in the matter of seconds which widens gaps that connect together, effectively enlarging the width of the opening to about ten feet after which he runs in through the hole, stepping one foot inside.

He stops before continuing to turn around in hopes of witnessing an evacuation, however to his surprise the only ones by his side are Kokei and Dana, as while some of the pirates have turned their attention to him, none of them follow, in fact they show perplexion at the fact he had attempted to call them all to action in the first place.

Even the Sea Hat leaders haven’t followed him in, as while they all stare at him, they haven’t moved in complacence.

There is however an alternate reason for the leaders’ lack of movement, a reason Rezzo glances down to, the reason laying on the floor with his yellow hat over his face. He just gazes at the body for a few moments in silence as all around him the creatures slowly encroach closer and closer to the center, closer to them, and once they do there’s no telling if they could escape. Even acknowledging that, there’s a visible unease in his face, wincing at his own thought process, his hands by his sheaths but none of them armed. His face contorts to a grimace, standing beside Mary and Beagle who turn their gazes from Ekitai to him, as they know who the weight is being placed on.

Nearly squeezing his eyes shut from the tension in his face, Rezzo pulls himself to reach the inevitable decision, and so he raises his head up, moving his gaze off the body and instead around to the pirates with him as he finally unsheathes one of his katanas in his right hand which he lifts in the air, calling for their attention which he does too with a heavy bellow that echoes off the high mountaintop: “SEA HATS, WE’RE FALLING BACK TO THE SHIP!!” With that, he turns his focus to the hole in the train before he then makes a dash towards it.

All of the surrounding pirates glance to one another in troubled befuddlement for a moment, though it doesn’t take a full second before cheers and roars emerge within the masses, and clumps of pirates begin to take off towards the hole too. Some stand still at first, shrugging to one another from the oddity of the command, but they glance back to find the creatures approaching them with their mouths gaping open, triggering those pirates to turn back around and follow the herd away.

Quickly and effectively, the Sea Hats mobilize towards the hole in their old home, many of them running past Mary and Beagle who remain standing in place, Mary’s eyes wide in horrified bewilderment, turning her gaze to the ground where her old captain remains laying. She whispers to herself in dread as her eyes begin to water, “Wa-wait…but-...but we can’t just leave-,” only for her hand to be grabbed by Beagle who begins sprinting for the door, forcing her to instinctively pick up her feet and run along with him despite her focus remaining fixed.

It’s when Beagle cries out, “MARY PLEASE, WE NEED TO MOVE FORWARD,” that she blinks twice, tears beginning to roll down her cheeks, not in resistance but instead the painful acceptance as she faces forward to the makeshift doorway and runs alongside her ally.

Reaching the opening and stopping by the side, Rezzo gazes at Ekitai who exchanges eye contact, the two nodding in silent communication. They watch the flock race in through the opening, men and women in sleek compression suits and huge metal exosuits, all of them moving together back inside even if they have to brush against each other to fit. Both Ekitai and Rezzo remain by the side to survey the chaos, though Rezzo’s focus begins to stray towards where he was before as his face begins to mellow.

For past Rezzo’s shoulder, behind the mass of pirates who run in from all angles away from the marching army of beasts, on the pure white floor lays the man in the red vest, his black coat functioning like a bed for him to rest comfortably, the gus hat like an sleep mask for his deep rest. Of all the pirates part of the Sea Hat crew, the old captain is the only one not to follow into safety, the only one being left behind in the cold, hostile environment. As more pirates enter the breach to safety, the more lonesome the captain becomes, reinforcements leaving him to continue their survival inside the ship that the captain had made their home.

Those final crewmates race inside the ship, leaving the only ones standing outside behind the marching creatures, Rezzo and Ekitai. Those creatures follow close behind, though their slow marches begin to pick up pace, their legs moving faster and their bodies lowering to a better running stance.

After one last panoramic gaze to confirm the evacuation’s success, Ekitai uses his free hand to grab Rezzo’s, and he runs inside the ship along with his former opponent who’s dragged inside with minor steps, complying with the retreat although unhappy of who has to be left behind. After the last two enter, Ekitai fires one mint green bolt at the top rim of his breach, which expels out a mint gel which spreads over the whole entry like a wall, clinging onto the rims to complete a tight seal which the creatures approach, just as another breach breaks through a wall, this wall being the igloo which releases a flood of other creatures that dash towards the train for reinforcements.

On the other side of the gel seal, Ekitai stumbles back into the train’s interior alongside Rezzo, both of them gaining footing and glancing around to find themselves inside the ship deck, that being the bar room right behind the front engine room, which while a cozier room does exemplify its true scale as it manages to fit all the evacuated pirates inside along with Kokei and Dana who wait by the door with a nod and a reception from him. Chatter fills the space perhaps as it always would according to the captain’s comments about its overbearing activity, although that chatter mostly consists of anxious ramblings, for it seems everyone has been shaken up and are struggling to calm themselves.

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Jumping gazes between clumps of conversation, Ekitai’s inspection of the room inevitably leads him to the reminder of its ruined state, bar tables and chairs stuck in a heap which a few pirates survey, most of the bottles along the bar shelves on the floor or otherwise destroyed, and the bar table itself sitting on the floor in two pieces. Even without the horde reaching the room, it already has the look of a battlefield, as it was exactly that. However, it wasn’t a battle between Bellators and Sea Hats, at least not against opponents currently in those opposing groups.

A solemn gaze is cast on Ekitai as he slowly observes the wreckages, watching some pirates pick up chairs from the pile, one of them being a woman with red and orange hair hoisting a chair to their waist, dropping it, and turning around to sit in it expecting it to hover but the chair ends up crashing on the floor along with them, triggering laughs from their comrades. The woman clenches her teeth before shouting back at them, as she didn’t know the chairs had lost their hovering capabilities. The fellow pirates mock her back in a manner that seems toxic on the surface, however upon keener inspection the woman’s face isn’t genuinely enraged, but instead she humbly smiles, recontextualizing her yelling to be an exaggerated act as she too finds humor in her own mistake, laughing with those allies.

Watching this interaction where one of those fellow pirates simply sits on the edge of the pile beside her, Ekitai frowns in reflection to the event that caused those chairs to break. In the length of time he had known the original leader, he had disagreements sure, he didn’t always prefer the leader’s opinions or calls and sometimes had even rebelled against them. However, regardless of all the arguments they had, especially when their situation became more dire, they were always on the same side. They had the same end goal, and even if their perspectives differed, they always managed to work together through those challenges. The leader could perhaps be a bit of a pessimist at times and had grown used to a life of solitude, often making decisions that would put him in the worst position such as isolating himself from the others and taking on difficult tasks alone. But even if it could be a challenge to bring him to accept his allies, at least they were always allies in every scenario, in every conflict they fought side by side.

Yet in the very first mission with the man who was in fact the real self of that original leader, despite how strange that fact still feels, they had already engaged in a physical conflict against each other in a direct contrast of objectives. In the first instance of disagreement, it had escalated to a point where he was even trying to lethally put down the new leader, using solutions that he hadn’t used on any other living opponents after he decided to stop mindlessly taking lives, a decision that seemed completely out of his personality as a crazed man who enjoyed chaos, yet it was a decision swayed by that old leader. But he overrode that rule on that very leader, in fact even if it was a terrible fate, they perhaps only were capable of working together because they were forced against another enemy that required collaboration.

Even now Ekitai believes the stance he held against the leader, it was his old friend who was in this feeling of entrapment, a feeling that manifested itself in the worst way. It was strange to think his friend would’ve conducted a raid so cruel and meaningless, but knowing it was out of his control made the situation all the more tragic. His friend needed help, and when he couldn’t get it, he couldn’t be saved, and it was the team leader who denied that aid.

At the time it felt senseless and cruel for the man whose reputation seemed so heroic to coldly reject helping someone who clearly was in need, in that moment there was no respect Ekitai had for him, allowing him to confidently make him his enemy. But even with just some time having passed, the scuffle done with and the two now separated with breathing room to think, Ekitai reevaluates the leader’s callous behavior, and that’s when the perspective finally comes to him. Since the very premise of this mission, he was constantly anxious, anxious about Dana’s safety. Even when she was secured and he had made the bold decision to stay and fight, it wasn’t out of a simple lust for battle, but rather his reasons were rooted in a guilt over not having taken action against pirates in all his life which arguably led Dana to take risky action herself. Despite having personal friendships with some as an old member of a crew, Ekitai could at least admit that pirates were more than capable of cruelty, he had seen it first hand in the underground world. The pirate disease had existed well before the leader was born, and yet he never solved it, he never took action. Even if his speech felt heroic and his motivations seemed perfectly secure, recalling that speech brought Ekitai to the epiphany how rooted it was in shame for failing to act before. Thus in that moment when he was trying to persuade the leader to not take action against the leader of the entire crew, one he had already tiredly fought against, it made sense why he wasn’t in agreement, or at least why he was so insistent on first neutralizing him. It was first interpreted as cold ruthlessness, but it was instead desperation to act on something he thought was good, and when the truth came to him and he realized his mistakes, that guilt only worsened many times over, and it’s clear he wholeheartedly blames himself for the captain’s death. Even if he seemed a vastly different man from the first leader, his youthful appearance and vast superiority of superpowers making him seem generally more optimistic and perhaps brazen, he had been suffering this whole mission to do what was right, and at every turn he was being punished, with Ekitai himself being one of those punishers. Now that leader was nowhere known, potentially stranded far with that beast who seemed completely invincible and could easily annihilate him. Worst of all, he was only abducted because he turned his back away from the fight, only to protect them from trying to help.

This compounding of revelations brings a distressed sigh from Ekitai, who closes his eyes and lowers his head, an act Kokei notices as she raises her head and nudges his shoulder, centering his gaze on her, the two exchanging sentimental stares as they both understand the dire situation leaderless. Despite that, Kokei tries to provide an assuring nod, helping to calm Ekitai who nods back and lets out another sigh though this one more fatigued rather than stressed, relaxed though aware that they’re not in a state where they could fully take ease.

Understanding this, Ekitai picks up his head and strolls towards Rezzo, Beagle, and Mary who are all quietly discussing amongst themselves in a circle a few feet away, though without even a word spoken they notice the new approach and break their conversation, Rezzo turning around to face the old gunslinger who nods to him as a greeting. He then debriefs loosely, “I’m not sure what those things are made of or what armor they have, if Beagle’s beams didn’t cut them then my blades won’t.”

Sighing back from that admission, Mary is the first to speak in her own confession with her arms crossed, “Yeah…I was hoping my Cloud would lower any sort of Exhuman shielding they had since they’re clearly no ordinary people, but that didn’t do anything. I’m not sure who they are…yeah they can’t be regular people…but they can’t be Exhumans either…. I definitely haven’t seen human variants like this, I mean they don’t even look…vaguely human other than I guess their shape. But I don’t know what world they could come from..’naturally.’”

Nodding firmly to that observation, Ekitai glances between her, Beagle, and then focuses on Rezzo as he determines reluctantly, “Well I don’t recognize them from anywhere I’ve been, and right now I don’t know if there’s even a way to hurt them. But until there is, I feel like all we can really do is try to push them back, all they’ve really responded to are walls so far which isn’t the best but at least we know they can’t just walk through anything. So I guess we can try to throw things to keep them back for now.”

Huffing in unease about that underdeveloped strategy, Rezzo criticizes sternly: “Then all we’ll be doing is buying time, and if more keep showing up it’ll just be a battle of attrition against a potentially infinitely scaling enemy,” as behind them Dana’s focus seems fixed on the broken door to the front engine room which she had stepped through earlier, already having passed this sight. She begins to slowly pace towards it as all the pirates continue to chatter amongst themselves to calm down, the strange lack of danger allowing them to alleviate themselves.

While Ekitai sighs ashamed with his head down to which Kokei tilts her gaze in concern to her friend’s defeated admission, “Yeah…you’re not wrong,” Dana instead wanders towards the engine room with curiosity, her head tilting.

Ambling somewhat aimlessly down the deck, Dana walks towards a pair of pirates who are fighting over a rifle, tugging back and forth as they bicker childishly, moving from one side of the room to the other such that she doesn’t need to slow down to move past. All around her the pirates return to a state of passivity, as though they’ve almost forgotten that the horde still remains outside, or at least they’re no longer concerned when they aren’t directly engaged against it. Some of them are occupied with their own weapons though, including a man in a white tuxedo who wipes down a long rifle resembling an M1 Garand with a cloth towel across from a young woman with strange large triangular ears coming from the top of their head, the back furry though the front has a canal as if it’s organic like a cat’s, an appearance somewhat explaining the behavior of her licking the back of her own hand, many of them being isolated to themselves as not every pirate is engaged in social activity.

Passing all of them, Dana approaches the engine room door as she begins to tune out all the voices of the crew, instead keying in on a different sound, a familiar raspy hum. That hum gradually gets louder or rather clearer the closer she moves to the room, until she finally reaches the door, which is technically closed although the acidic-burnt hole through the center keeps it perpetually accessible, as it’s enough for her to crawl through. Inside the engine room, she paces slowly towards the source of that raspy hum, but immediately upon entering the room her stance becomes vastly more cautious, her steps becoming crouches.

This caution is warranted as she finds that down the center of the engine room, from the center of the large hole to the bottom floor that was caused from the skirmishes she had walked into, there stands a tall thick black root from below the floor which rises straight through the roof past all the ceilings. There is a curvature to the root, as the visible part appears to be the ascendance of an arch, the caustics within the surface pulsating.

She comes to a stop, just staring silently at the root which at least isn’t actively releasing creatures, seemingly unaware of the group’s presence. She had nearly forgotten that there were roots growing from the train itself, and if she had recalled that she would’ve sought alternatives to taking refuge in the train, but amidst the chaos she was just trying to press against the monsters and find safety. What’s worse, she remembers now that there were far more than just one root growing from the train, and they were all spread across the vehicle, meaning that there wasn’t only one internal source to concern over, but instead the group at this very moment was still very much surrounded.

Carefully she takes a few steps backwards and turns around, crawling through the melted door on her way to alert the rest of the team. She paces past the relaxing pirates, moving more at a hasty pace, not in a run but in more of an intense walk, locking her gaze on both Ekitai and Kokei who are still by the mint seal that oddly remains intact. Her focus is locked to them, or that is until all the sudden the cat girl’s ears spring up which triggers her to lower her head to the floor and abruptly yelp, “WAIT, THEY’RE HERE-!”

All the sudden, holes break in the floor from below, the metal wood tearing apart to open breaches from where blurs launch straight up, blurs that land on the floor to reveal themselves as those dark creatures. Multiple holes break in the deck, each of them surfacing another creature, causing the whole deck to jump to uproar as all the pirates shuffle to their feet and scatter, some of them frantically running aimlessly as more creatures emerge from the floor at random, prompting Dana to begin sprinting towards Ekitai and Kokei who both stay side by side but shuffle anxiously, trying not to make sudden movements but also not wanting to stay fixed in place to be an easy target. That logic wasn’t prioritized by Dana, who dives forward just as a hole breaks beneath her, surfacing another beast who nearly grazes her with its gaping mouth. She rolls up to her feet to reach Kokei who follows Ekitai who tracks Rezzo’s observations of the combusting situation before ultimately unsheathing his right katana once again to lift in the air and bellow, “SEA HATS, WE’RE RETREATING FROM THIS ROOM! STAY WITH THE GROUP!” He then takes a brief glance back at Ekitai, and for a short moment his glare wavers with unease, however that unease reverts to that same boldness carried in his followup: “FOCUS ON PHYSICALLY BARRING THEM FOR NOW, DON’T LEAN ON GOING FOR KILLS OR EVEN STUNNING THEM. LET’S MOVE,” before sprinting off to the exit of the deck on the opposite end of the engine room.

That announcement provides a direction for all the aimlessly shuffling pirates who all begin flocking towards the same doorway, nearly trampling over each other on the way out. While those who were initially closer to that side of the room are more easily capable of evacuation, those who had rested further away struggle to outpace the eyeless monsters who swing their arms wildly all when more breach through the floor. While Ekitai is faster to leave, both Dana and Kokei get caught up in the flood of evacuees, unable to find passage during which other pirates deeper in the room are forced into engagements to try making openings, one of them throwing their arms forward as fireballs form in their hands to hurtle at the black bodies that don’t even ignite on impact. They end up running the other way after seeing the lack of effect their superpowers has, hoping at least to impose distractions as other pirates leap in the air and fling themselves with propulsion systems strapped to their back like backpacks, and others pounce from the ceiling down to the floor with superhuman agility to try evading the creatures.

Realizing she was being held up in this traffic, unlikely to escape now until more of the crew has cleared the room, Dana turns her focus back on the deck and extends her arms up, both of them reshaping into conal cannons filled with grates which flare black before firing Anti-Exmatter bolts, though rather than firing from all apertures at once, only a select are fired at a time, calculated to avoid striking any of the bandits, precisely focused exclusively on the monsters. Those monsters are struck, causing their body to be quickly covered in a dark seal similar to the effect of an Exhuman’s neutralization, however once that seal closes it suddenly fragments with white cracks that causes the seal to oddly drift away before fizzling, leaving the beasts to continue their march unaffected. Perplexed by that strange effect, Dana tilts her head, though she straightens it again as her shoulder cannons morph once more with a body more of a rounded cube than a cylinder, not featuring a single large barrel but a grid of many smaller ones from which launch several golden darts, intelligently strafing away from other pirates to only strike the monsters, exploding on impact with bursts of black energy that cover multiple nearby beasts in that black seal, only again for it to fragment and disperse, not even capable of slowing them down.

Among those pirates safe from the gunfire, one using those backpacks makes a narrow boost past one of the creatures, who swings its arm wildly into the pack, slashing straight through the metal body and causing it to flicker with a slight explosive burst that throws the pirate forward into the ground with a groan. A nearby crewmate instinctively grabs his arm and pulls him off the ground as he slips the backpack off, letting it fall to the floor given its dysfunction, though the blast had knocked him hard which restricts his walking and requires his comrade to help carry him forward, slowing both of them down.

Several more creatures notice this and charge for the defenseless duo, who turn around in horror just as another pirate approaches them with their hand forward as spiked wires oddly summon from his palm, moving forward in the air as if controlled like a drone, which slithers before descending to the ground and crawling orthogonal to its release, drawing a line between the pair and the creature. One row of the barbed wire fence is drawn just as the creature walks into it, stopping its advance momentarily, allowing the two to escape along with the rest being held back. That doesn’t last forever though as a single swipe to the wire slashes it in half, and the creatures continue advancing, but at least so do the pirates as the final few run out before both Kokei and Dana can do the same, the last of whom reverts her hands and shoulders after the Anti-Exmatter’s strange though ineffective results, using the right hand to build and toss another golden cube in the doorway which bursts out a golden wall to seal the exit just in time.

In spite of the freedom gained from escaping that deck infested with monsters, the full horde had been awakened, chasing the survivors through all rooms they ran through in a search for escape. Inside the large library with all three floors exposed given that the middle floor has a wide gap along the center to form a balcony and the topmost has a glass floor, the mass of pirates navigate over the debris of crumbled shelves as the archives had little still intact remaining from the prior battle.

What wasn’t a direct result of that battle though are the two huge black roots like pillars that stand in the room, both of them stemming from the rubble and tall enough that they pierce the glass ceiling, and it’s from those roots more nightmarish creatures emerge, their heads expanding to open their face mouths as others fling their bodies to the floor, completely disregarding any pain a human would feel from a drop at that height since some crawl out by the second floor yet still throw themselves to the base. They don’t show any pain from the drop though, as they pick themselves up immediately to charge at the cluster of pirates, one in the back armed in a metal exoskeletal mech with their hands replaced with large machine guns that fire consistent rapid fire, constantly ejecting a flood of bronze shells off the sides as those bullets are ejected into the horde yet with minimal pushback. A crewmate wielding what looks like a flare gun beside them raises their head towards the upper floor as much of the horde is racing from the further edges, meaning they’re under that encompassing physical layer. He aims his flare gun at the ceiling and presses the trigger, firing a projectile that does indeed have a bright trail, however on impact it leaves an intense explosion more akin to a rocket launcher which blows a sizeable hole, the debris of which come crashing down and rain onto several of the creatures, piling on them as they vanish beneath the ruins.

Both them and the one in the mech turn around to pick up the pace, realizing they’re falling behind the rest of the group who’s darting for the opposite end of the library while more creatures continue emerging from the roots, others already surfaced climbing over the piles of destroyed shelves before leaping off the top, some of them being stopped by walls suddenly manifested made of what resembles traditional red bricks which appear initially floating before sliding together where a layer of concrete appears, drying instantaneously. Some of those creatures just ram into the wall, but a few more behind make intentional slashes, cutting the brick wall down to allow others to leap through.

At the very least, the pirates at the front line manage to run through a spacious hole premade into the wall, letting them leave the room which gradually floods with more summons happening seemingly without cooldown.

Not every car is infested with the roots themselves, though with more monsters emerging all over the train, there doesn’t exactly need to be roots at every point. Even inside the large theater auditorium, with fancy red velvet seats albeit craters amongst them all facing the royale stage beneath the large banner of the golden hat, the multiple balconies along the edges to hold additional seats is quickly covered with dark monsters racing in from seemingly all directions, growling before throwing themselves over the edge to the main floor where the crew runs along the central aisle up, firing barrages of ballistic gunshots, icicles, laser fire, and many other projectiles of varying shapes and colors in all directions back. There isn’t a single black root inside the auditorium itself, yet in the brief time since the escape from the deck, a vast army of these humanoids have been deployed seemingly all over the train, converging on the single group.

That group, while spaced out more than earlier in order to get better flexibility, is still distinguishable as one large mass down on the bottom floor running in the same general direction whether it be a shirtless gray man with fish-like scales running along his body as he blasts fire from two compact machine guns resembling tommyguns, or a woman in a vibrant crop top and bright blonde hair rapidly throwing small paper concert ticket slips that trigger incendiary explosions. Amongst the crowd runs a duo side by side, Dana whose hands are currently conal cannons though she’s mainly firing from three tentacles attached to her back, two by her shoulders and one by her nape. The shots aren’t golden or black, but instead purple, meeting their targets but still not fazing them in the slightest. Next to her runs Kokei, who is not as easily capable of multitasking in the way that Dana can offload tasks to seemingly independent autonomous components of her body built at will.

Her attention is forcefully raised though as they approach the main exit, however above and to the right of it on the lowest balcony leaps another cluster of creatures, mouths gaping open. She instinctively raises her hands up and winces simultaneously with a charge up like that of an energy rifle that’s released in the form of a pink electric swarm, one that expands wide enough to catch the full cluster. These arcs are significantly thicker than the ones used first against the horde, drawing more energy from Kokei but done in the hopes of gaining better control as it was possible that it was simply not enough before, just like how she needed to push herself harder to help suspend the train. The swarm does reach them midair, and for a moment their drop abruptly stops as all the momentum they’ve built is suddenly sapped, however not a full second later they continue their fall out of the field of lightning, again bypassing her power.

Both of her arms drop in defeat, jumping backwards the same as the surrounding pirates who were thrown off by the intimately proximate beasts aiming to cut them off. One of the pirates beside her steps forward as his body quickly becomes surrounded by a field of hovering smooth pebbles like that found by a driveway, each of them manifesting from grains emerging in the air, initially creating an aura but one deployed offensively in a barrage targeted at the beasts at speeds enough to penetrate blocks of a person’s body. They instead simply bounce off the heads and chests of the targets, landing by their feet without causing harm, however further up ahead the old gunslinger notices his friend’s dire situation as well as the apparently futile resistance, yet a plan concocts in his head at the speed it takes for him to swivel his aim over to the dark feet and fire a few yellow bolts, bolts that strike not the monsters’ bodies but instead the pebbles which suddenly flash yellow before the bursting into thick gray slime that sticks onto the knees given the initially high dropoff of the pebbles. The creatures stop their march for just a moment, struggling against the slime which leaves a window for Dana, Kokei, and the other crew members to run past before those creatures can pull their legs out of the slime, their adaptation quick although not instant. At least able to move ahead, the two get closer to the front where Ekitai runs alongside the rest of the main Sea Hats who are leading the charge, with Rezzo at the head who unsheathes another katana in his initially free left hand.

Approaching the closed exit door beneath the balcony, the swordsman rapidly swings both arms and the katanas in them in diagonals of varying angles, which a second later results in that entire door shattering into many small metal segments which drop on the ground, creating an entryway for him to pass through along with the rest of the crew. Amongst the pirates escaping, one of them strangely enough makes a directed spit straight at the bottom of the balcony, leaving behind a rather disturbing thick patch of grayish saliva, as if it’s dirty. However, as the last pirates run through the doorway including larger brutes who need to duck to get through without bumping themselves, that patch of spit automatically detonates with a fiery burst, collapsing part of the balcony floor which drops same as the chairs over it, caving in the exit to prevent the unwanted beasts from following at least for a moment.

Deeper down the train the Bellators and Sea Hats traverse, no direction they can move but backwards. They eventually reach the barracks room, or what’s left of it at least, as only the edges of the room house any currently standing stacks of hovering beds whereas closer to the center those stacks are instead chaotic piles of beds many of which are broken either with punctured holes or cleaved into slices. That’s not even to mention the great pile of debris in the center by a few holes in the floor leading to the bathroom underneath, though there are more holes now as some have been burst open by the several black roots now looming over like towers, more of them along the edges to surround the room and the survivors racing down the center. They’re already making their escape as a siege of creatures race in through the entrance on the other side, but even more grow off the roots, pushing themselves out to quicken their arrival, eager to join the onslaught with piles of bodies forming at the bottom of the pillars, the monsters crawling over each other until they reach hard surface.

Even if they’ve become well aware that they can’t permanently stop the savages, the pirates find any exploit they can to at least hinder their advancement, including a redhead woman dressed in a green dress who raises her arms to command a field of unnaturally large green plants to grow from the floor, bushes in that they rise in dense clusters, those bushes drawing spikes as thorns that catch onto the beasts. None of the thorns pierce the skin, however they at the very least form an obstruction that the creatures need time to claw through, holding back the left front during a charge on the right which Beagle notices, leading him to leap in the air with charged propulsion to then aim down at them and blast concentrated rays of energy towards them, however rather than the bodies being the primary target instead it’s the floor they run down which crumbles beneath their animalistic feet, caving the floor in to force them to fall into the bathroom level down. The creatures following in the additional waves behind the hole take notice, most of them redirecting their paths around the hole but some simply bound over it, few of them in particularly aiming for a lunge straight for Beagle after an impressive leap, who, caught in the air, can only raise his arms up on instinct as strafes would just land him in front of another. Right as one of those black claws is about to graze his suit, a golden tentacle wraps around his waist and yanks him down, pulling him away from danger.

That tentacle places him on his feet before unraveling and returning into the golden’s cyborg who nods to him as from the shoulders rise two mortar-style cannons that each fire volleys into the air which spread out like an umbrella, functioning as suppressive firepower that also blows holes into the ground to drop more creatures, utilizing that extra thin floor as an environmental weapon.

Behind her, a woman in a colorful suit summons bubbles from her hands which have blue glowing edges, both of them specifically targeting clumps of destroyed beds that had made piles. Both bubbles reach their targeted clumps where they then consume the piles, the bubbles enlarging to encapsulate their targets before raising them slightly in the air, each pile on the opposite side of another charging group. However, as the woman claps her hands together, both bubbles suddenly fly towards each other, clashing to form one larger bubble that combines both bed piles into one major clump that crashes through that group, doubling as a barrier for the wave behind. She turns around to follow the group to reach the end of the room, knowing not to focus too much on any one batch as another would come quickly regardless.

She and the other pirates ahead run through the open doorway out of the barracks as behind them, those dark beasts leap over the holes they were dropped through, surfacing from the bathroom as it’s once again reiterated that they can only be slowed down, and as more continue to converge on the group, the intensity of the threat only continues to grow with every room passed.

Past a narrow corridor swarming with beasts all charging with some even pushing against one another, that next room is reached from the doorway, that being the training gym as defined by the square platforms not far from the entrance functioning as boxing rings, though some of them are no longer hovering as they have cracks deep down the center. At the head leads Rezzo alongside Ekitai, the latter of whom fires shots up at the upper floors where creatures linger, likely having crawled out of the huge root pillar straight in the center of the room. One of them dodges the falling rubble caused by Ekitai’s shots, landing in front of the two to which Rezzo instinctively dashes forward and initiates a flurry of strikes with not only his two katanas but the other two, unsheathing him while his first pair are in mid-swing, juggling between both pairs rapidly to slash at the monster as quick as he can. Yet while enduring that flurry, the monster just reaches its arm forward, entirely unaffected by the blades, forcing Rezzo to instead target the floor under it, drilling a hole through the ground which buries the monster just enough for Ekitai to fire a few amber bolts into the hole which releases a honey-like liquid that quickly fills the entire pit before hardening, sealing the monster temporarily like a preservation which allows the two to continue forward.

Already most of the equipment has been impaired in some manner amongst the higher specialized platforms, whether it be the benches beside dumbbells snapped in half, or the tall lifting machines now just a pile of scraps. This would only worsen as the alerted swarm begin charging for the entry, creatures mantling over the firearm tables by the firing range to throw themselves over the guard-less edges, hurtling themselves at the pirates, closing the distance on some of the crewmembers at the further edges who have to make narrow evasions, unable to counterattack as most opt to keep running although a few stubborn try their best to launch a strike, one of them in a sleek black jumpsuit trying to stab it in the back of the neck, only for the blade to snap on collision, forcing them to make a quick roll between the lanky legs to avoid a swipe for their own.

Generally the direction remains forward, the two lead the same, followed closely by Beagle and Mary who try to provide cover fire with blue lasers and yellow bolts, though understanding that they wouldn’t be effective in terms of direct damage. Clusters of the pirates who are at least able to spread across the wider room after the tight hallway compose what can hardly be defined as the proceeding line, though they make sure to keep pace including one man in a uniform reminiscent of old military gear with pouches lined over the abdomen and a bowl-shaped helmet, though he doesn’t aim a traditional rifle but instead his hand in command for a larger humanoid drone significantly taller than him, which charges past him to drop the shoulder and block a monster’s pounce before launching it back off the heavy metal plating.

Deeper in that clump is both Dana and Kokei, running past a few pirates on their race for the front to reach their other comrade, though with the density of the group they find that the obstacles aren’t only the monsters. Especially with giant golden pillars just appearing over the ground and rockets being fired that soar scarily close to their heads at the start of its trajectory, they find themselves constantly ducking and weaving instead of making a clean line for their destination. They at the very least remain side by side, or that is until they need to each strafe in different actions as a lanky beast drops between them, having penetrated the lines, causing many of the other pirates to turn their attention towards it. While having reinforcements would be great, this immediately results in a stampede that nearly swallows Kokei, burying her further back as pirates all eagerly begin chucking rocks that light up before exploding on impact and firing grenades out of launchers from their wrists. Dana instinctively turns towards her and prepares to make a dash, only to receive a silent message from Kokei in the form of a thumbs up before becoming a point towards the direction of the leads, which decrypts to assurance and a request for her to instead focus forward. Not being able to stay still for a full second given the chaos around her, Dana electrically grunts in dismay before turning forward and continuing to sprint onwards, passing the doorway with the rest of the survivors into the prison room as she already starts passing several of the rubber cells, some of which have gaping holes blown through them from the first evacuation.

Further back in the gym room, Kokei struggles in the lagging crowd, strafing away from the bombardment in concern of being caught in it herself. Her focus remains forward, however it’s reversed upon a sudden shriek which twists her head the other way to find a young adult man crying in terror upon being stranded further back behind a few creatures. Kokei’s focus fixates on him and his petrified, wide eyes, her running pace beginning to slow though she doesn’t make a full stop to turn around, her priorities difficult to change especially knowing she’d be endangering herself more by approaching those very invulnerable enemies. While she keeps forward, she hears the distant cry of Beagle’s voice: “MARY WAIT!” Moments later, that orange-haired woman dashes right past the doorway to the prison and right past her, sprinting directly for the stranded man, the only one moving in the opposite direction. A gentle cloudy film wraps around her like the armor she used in the earlier fight, although this one had an effectiveness not so guaranteed, yet it was all she could use as protection when racing straight for the monsters crowding over the lost pirate. With impressive acrobatics, she leaps over some of the creatures and picks up the man before dashing out of the way from a slash, circling around the back line with the crewmate in her arms, held bridal style as her fiery glare fixes back to the prison room where she sprints towards, moving back in the direction of the observer watching through astounded pink eyes.

That astoundment becomes horror upon witnessing a creature dash straight into her from the side, causing her to shriek and toss the man forward, saving him as he lands and rolls to his feet before facing back to find Mary on the ground in front of a monster who stares down at her with only its gaping mouth. Despite the visible conflict within the saved man’s eyes of wanting to save her especially after what she had just done for him, the man grits his teeth and turns the other way, instead continuing past the doorway as admission of inability, leaving Mary as the only one inside the gym room as Kokei just steps foot through the doorway.

Still aware of her track record consistent purely of failures to make any impact against these monsters, and the futility that’d only endanger herself if she risked herself in an engagement which had been strictly advised against by her friend’s former comrade, there was an aggressive repulsion against heeding that advice and turning the other way. Knowing that Mary had just risked her life for that one pirate, one of many who she likely didn’t even know the name of, one whose status was most definitely inferior if not vastly inferior to her own within the ranks of the crew, just turning around and letting her remain abandoned was something Kokei couldn’t find the commitment to do.

Thus even if this alternative felt far more difficult to reason, it was the one her body naturally gravitated to as she stops and swivels the other way diverging from the rest of the evacuees, killing her momentum which makes her an immediate target given that there are still many more creatures in that room. However, focusing on those details would only drown out the necessary concentration she needs to make any purpose of this risk, as the only important details she needs focus on is that of her own abilities, as it’s all that she has control over, all she can use to control those other details. She begins to raise her hands which start sparking pink, primed to unleash another swarm. But as her gaze slightly dwindles between the various monsters further back charging for Mary, still on the ground with her hand on her shoulder in pain, Kokei assesses that just putting more power to her lightning wouldn’t make a difference, it didn’t even show a significant change when she amplified that output earlier, a solution that had worked well with the train. At every encounter on this day it felt like a standard method of success was being rendered obsolete, at every encounter Kokei was found unable to use her prior experience in her own abilities to find a solution. It wasn’t even like her arcs weren’t strong enough to hold the creatures, but it was like they just weren’t tangible enough to begin with, like they weren’t even properly registered. As the monster who had pushed Mary down takes a step forward and reaches its arm for her, rendering Kokei’s time to act to be under a second, an overload of stress consumes her in trying to seek a solution she hasn’t yet tried. She needed more, but more wasn’t enough when it never touched. Kokei’s arms begin to recede backwards, the sparks fading as she instead grasps the temples of her head between her eyes that brighten more, diverting her focus inwards in a desperate search for another strength, something deeper, more fundamental. It wasn’t the power of the punch, but the commitment to its form which was failing. Just as those long, black claws begin to curl around Mary’s arm, Kokei extends her arms to that monster as not only those arms but her whole body ignites with bright pink sparks no thicker than the ones she had always used against human targets even when much larger ones had no effect. However, those sparks were significantly brighter, almost white in fact, and upon their instinctual release they elongate to arcs which oddly pulls the attention of the creature towards it like a moth noticing a lamp, watching those bright arcs swarm it in a tight field that causes the body to immediately halt, not just for a moment but multiple more.

On the ground beside it, Mary instinctively pushes herself away before sliding to her feet, watching in astonishment as the beast doesn’t move despite its prey doing so, but instead remains locked in its pose, as though it’s truly unable to move. A moment of bewilderment consumes Mary before she’s reminded of the remaining horde approaching from deeper in the room, pushing her towards the doorway out, running along the bright stream and passing Kokei, huffing intensely.

After she races out, Kokei cuts off her own electric field to turn around and follow away, also very much not wanting to stay stranded back, instead running alongside Mary. They follow the rest of the crew inside the large prison room left with many holes in the walls including the one behind the CEO’s old cell and the one with the bridge tunnel etched in which Dana glances to, contemplating what might’ve been had they just departed right then and there. Her attention is pulled forward from a sea of shouts and chatter, returning her focus forwards where the rest of the crew runs down the central aisle of the prison. However, further up ahead at the other end is the face of the car that has the doorway to the next car, yet it’s not only that doorway but in fact that whole face that is sealed with a colossal wall made of frosty blue crystals, with not a single opening in that entire face.

Dread covers Kokei’s face upon facing what was first deployed to protect her from the enemies which now entraps her with it, understanding that trying to get around the car through the side walls would force them back outside where they wouldn’t have such control over the environment. She watches a few rockets be fired from the crowd of pirates for that crystal wall, however even after they all explode on impact, it leaves not even a scratch to be seen, for that wall is perhaps as impervious as the hide of the monsters flooding in through the doorway.

At the front of the line, Ekitai sighs to the irony of their conundrum before glancing around at the blocks of cells between him, finally facing Rezzo to whom he exclaims, “FOLLOW ME!” before firing a single acidic shot into one of those cells to his right and choosing that to be his next destination, running inside the cell as he continues firing more acidic shots through the rubber walls, burning holes into the cells beside it, leading a strange path which Rezzo scoffs to. That scoff however isn’t entirely projected outward though, as without any better alternative, he has no other choice but to follow the crazed old man inside the gap, which leads the rest of the pirates in a stampede for safety, large brutes amongst smaller men with the golden cyborg in the center. That cyborg however stops beside the open cell, waiting as the rest floods into the enclosure of the cells they’d otherwise be guarding, asking no questions for they wouldn’t oppose their leadership especially at a critical moment like this where many more creatures follow close behind.

This path can be seen from along the side though as the cells all have screens facing out, making simple hiding behind the walls difficult. Knowing this, the head of the path, Ekitai, fires a shot directly up into the ceiling, marking the next edge in his path. He then fires an orange shot to the ground, which bursts into a samely colored slime about a foot in radius, though that slime puffs up slightly like a stepping stool. Bringing his arms up with his hands beside his head, Ekitai hops onto the orange slime, which propels him straight upwards at speeds as if he had just sprung himself on a trampoline, enough to fling him through the hole. Rezzo sighs at this sight, but with no other option he hops onto the slime stool and bounces through the hole too, leading the other pirates to do the same.

At the tail end of the group is Mary and Kokei, the last of the survivors to run inside the cell, and once they do, Dana tosses a golden cube by the hole which bursts out to grow a seal that fits perfectly with the acidically-created gate, blocking off entry from the creatures who wildly sprint for it. Many of those monsters at the front even run straight into the wall like aimless dogs, crashing mindlessly and forming a pile as those pirates vanish behind the next hole, continuing on.