Natural Enemy 2-12

Rain felt like fists, hammering down in sheets of water so thick they drowned everything else out. Kai took a breath, blinking half-blind eyes as thunder clapped after another flash of lightning. Both the storm and the pirates refused to leave the merchant ship untouched, the transport heaving up and down on the swells in a constant lurch as the storm brawled back and forth. 

Kai didn’t wait for an invite. Knees bent, he stood in the Naruto, stance absorbing the violent chop even as the little skiff slammed against the transport’s hull.

Geyser… The teenager clenched his fists, feeling the churn deep in his gut before he felt it in the water. The pressure built, bubbling harder and harder beneath the boat like a pot boiling over. Jump!

Water exploded underneath the skiff, a column of pressurized brine not lifting it so much as kicking it in the ass. The Naruto launched and Kai launched with it, riding the momentum for a split second before kicking off the boat with a wet squeak of his sandals.

He flew.

The air held him weightless for a single heartbeat, a fleshy cannonball with a bucket hat aimed straight forward through the rain and lightning.

Gravity collected the debt as he hit the deck of the merchant ship.

There was no superhero landing, nothing smooth or clean about it as he landed like a sack of wet laundry dropped from a second-story window. Sandal soles skidded hard on the slick wood, Kai’s hands slapping against the deck to keep from face-planting into a puddle of blood and rainwater.

“Nnnnghhh!”

His knees screamed as he scrambled up, already wiping slime off his beaten-up gloves, eyes wide as he stared at the slaughterhouse in front of him.

Merchants and guards were scattered like discarded toys all over the deck; those that weren’t groaning or bleeding, were just… still. The rain washed the red off the rails, mixing with the salt spray until the whole ship deck looked like watered-down tomato soup.

A group of pirates stood over the mess, frozen mid-kill as they looked at the chubby kid who had just fallen out of the sky.

"Dat a kid?" one of them grunted, squinting through the rain.

…monsters. 

The question went right over his head as Kai stared down at the bodies. A man gurgled through a torn throat, knife still stuck in his neck as he grasped at it with bloody hands.

Pirates were bad already, he knew that, but this was… this was just fucked up. These were just people trying to make a living, regular merchants, and these pirates just came in and… and…

Kai’s fists clenched, leather gloves creaking. Just take them all out like you did before.

One of the pirates, a skinny guy with a bandana tied above a mouthful of rotten teeth, stepped forward with his cutlass raised. "Hey, little k-"

The little kid didn't let him finish as he charged forward, all the speed and force of a grand piano rolling downhill.

His shoulder met the skinny pirate’s ribcage before the killer could get all the words out, two tons of force meeting barely a hundred and fifty pounds of bad diet and waterlogged rum.

The pirate folded and flew, skipping backwards off the wet deck as a red smear dragged behind him. By the time he came to a stop, there was no grunt coming from him, the pirate completely unmoving.

Several heads turned his way, eyes wide and mouths open.

“Get ‘im!”

Kai ducked a swing as soon as they swarmed, a dozen pirates all at once rushing him from all sides. Another blade whistled over his hat, Kai grabbing the attacker’s wrist and twisting. 

“Aaaaahhhh!” Bone snapped like dry wood, Kai spinning the screaming pirate as another pirate swung a heavy club his way. The maul hit home, but not on Kai; the pirate useful as a shield before he went flying.

“Oops.” His human shield hit the club-man, the two of them crashing into a pile of tangled rigging.

Another pirate came from the left, a big guy with an axe roaring as he charged forward.

Kai stomped the deck with a roar of his own, rainwater shooting up like a geyser and blasting all around him in a high-pressure spray. The pirate sputtered, one hand over his eyes, unable to defend himself as Kai stepped in; a sloppy haymaker meeting an unprotected jaw.

Lights out, but Kai didn’t bother to stop; elbows thrown, knees launched, water slicking the deck so the pirates slipped around him.

A hiss slipped free from his throat, Kai spinning around as a cutlass nicked his arm. His hand lashed out, the swordsman grabbed by the vest as Kai introduced their foreheads together at high speed.

The guy’s eyes rolled back a half-second before Kai tossed him overboard. 

One by one, each of them went down; Kai handing out broken bones, contusions and concussions as he dented the deck with their bodies. The last one tried to crawl away on hands and knees but — “Oh no, you don’t!” —  Kai grabbed him by the ankle and bodily tossed him into a stack of crates.

Wood shattering around him, the guy didn’t get up.

Breaths came heavy, chest heaving, steam rose off his skin in the cold rain. Where… where’s the big one?

Then came the whistle; a sharp, cutting noise sounded loud over wind and rain both.

Kai glanced up just in time to see a rope swing out from the darkness of the storm, his eye twitching as he saw a flutter of red. Cutter Cain swung into the air, the bounty hunter releasing the rope at the peak of the arc. With a single flip in midair, Cutter landed on the railing with the grace of a cat that knew everyone was watching.

Red hair whipped free and wild in the wind like a flag, purple coat billowing as lightning flashed behind him. "Fashionably late!”

He hopped down.

Behind him, three more thumps sounded out, his crew landing onto the deck one by one. The big guy, the bikini girl, and the juggler; each one of them fanned out, weapons drawn as they looked like they did this every Tuesday.

"You again?" Cain didn’t even look at Kai, eyes on the door as he adjusted his cuffs. "Thought I told you to stay in the kiddie pool."

"I’m here for the whale," Kai flexed his fingers. "You can get the hell out of my way."

Cain laughed loud and proud. "Cute. Now, go sit in the corner, beach bo-"

Wood exploded outward, the entrance to the merchant ship blown apart across the wet deck like broken buckshot. Kai flinched, throwing an arm up as a splinter the size of a steak knife embedded itself in the railing next to his head.

Jesus… Kai blinked as something stepped out of the hole that was the door, breath catching in his throat. Just like her husband.

Beula Billions was a huge bitch. She stood there as a mountain of blubber, pale skin like uncooked dough packed tight and stacked high. 

WHAT THE HELL IS A FISHMAN EVEN? Kai’s eyes went wider, stepping back as he realized he might have underestimated exactly what people were saying.

She was… huge.

Eight feet tall at least, thick chains draped themselves over her massive body like jewelry, heavy iron links clanking with each step as she walked out. One hand — a damp meaty paw the size of a shovel — dragged a whole ship’s anchor behind her.

A real, rusted barnacle-encrusted anchor that scraped a deep gouge in the deck as she stopped a few feet out. She looked at Cain. She looked at Kai.

She looked around with the small black beads she called eyes, buried deep in the folds of her face. “Hmm…”

Beula opened her mouth; wide, too wide.

"RRRRRRRAAAAAAAUUUUUGGGGHHHHH!"

WHAT THE FUCK IS A FISHMAN? Kai’s ears popped, the sound hitting him like a punch as the windows on the bridge shattered. Glass rained down on the deck like diamond hail, rain drops blasted backward by the sheer force of the whale woman’s lungs.

The teenager stumbled back, hands clapped tight over his ears. Loud. Too loud. 

“Robby!”

Kai blinked, trying to clear the spots from his vision as Beula yelled.

“I’m ready!” A teenager, short and almost as skinny as one of Kai’s legs, jumped out from behind the Whale Fishwoman. Straw-blond hair hung limp in the rain, plastered to a skull that seemed a little too big for his body.

“Taro!”

“Aye aye, cap’n!” Next to the blond, a tall pink-skinned bald guy lumbered out, a dull look on his face. Shirtless and sunburnt, he wore flowery swim trunks that strained against a gut bigger than Kai’s own.

“Inkwright!”

The third one clicked his tongue as he stepped out from behind his captain. Gray skinned and lanky, the man’s limbs were almost too long for his body as he held two rapiers like toothpicks, picking his teeth with the tip of one.

"Big Beluga!" Cain shouted, stepping forward with a grin as his twin cutlasses flashed in the lightning. "I’ve come to collect! Try not t-"

He lunged.

It was fast. Kai had to give him that, Cain almost blurring in a rush of purple and red, flashing swords aimed for the massive expanse of Beula’s stomach.

The whale woman didn’t even look at him.

She just moved her arm, a casual backhand lifted high like she was swatting a fly buzzing too close to her dinner.

Her hand connected with Cain’s chest and in front of all the watching eyes, the redhead went flying back. Cutlass Cain skipped against the wet wood like a flat stone before he crashed through a stack of crates with a wet, sickening thud. Barely a full second later, the bounty hunter crumpled, cutlasses clattering to the deck, useless.

Beula turned her head, those black beady eyes locking onto Kai as she grinned his way.

Oh… oh no. He swallowed a mouthful of nothing as he stared into rows and rows of flat, grinding teeth.

"Boys, kill these fools.” The big woman rumbled, each and every syllable from her seemingly a bellow even if she didn’t actually raise her voice. The crew — Straw-head, Sunburn, Gray-guy — all stepped forward, clearly ready to fight.

Kai looked at the anchor. He looked at the blubber. He looked at Cain’s unconscious body. If he waited, he died. If he hesitated, he was paste on the deck for the rain to wash away. Move or die, Kai. Move or die.

He cracked his knuckles as the blood surged in his veins, heating up and steaming against the chill of the rain. “Okay.” The whisper was lost in the thunder. "Okay."

He planted his feet on the slick deck.

The brawl began.