Post by The Prettiest Squish on Jan 16, 2018 12:17:10 GMT -5
Sunlight trickled into the room, painting every square inch from the floorboards to the ceiling in a rich gold warmth. Birds chirped outside in the canopies of the jungle and the rustling of air blown vines could be heard through the half open window. Sharp sun rays penetrated the glass and landed upon a pair of pillowy white forms crinkled together from the satin white blankets. The oddly voluptuous clouds gently tossed and turned in their modest abode as the sound of giggling emanated from beneath their thin veil of comfort.
Eventually, patterns evocative of handprints stamped the once placid surface until five dark fingers thrust the canvas aside from them. A shriek, playful in tone, accompanied the reveal and a ghastly pale figure emerged from the mattress, her lightning blue eyes fixed straight on the owner of those pentamerous caramel digits. Her lips curved back like sickly sickle blood cells and her teeth glowed bright like a crescent moon on a cloudless night. "Bitch."
Taylor laughed deviously, the fingers of her free hand still holding onto a garment of symmetrical weight, black in hue and curvaceous in shape. She waved it frivolously in her fingertips as if it were ready to go jumping out the window any moment. And the consort opposite of her tried diligently to maintain the composure of a dignified woman in all her nude glory.
The fabric barren phantom huffed and puffed in the frigid morning air, her blue eyes seemingly growing colder through every breath. Both vanilla and chocolate women gazed at each other with longing eyes, but longing for different things. Taylor smirked, dangling the garment. And Jades snarled, following the black cloth with hungry irises. "Come an' get it, Jae~" Taylor spoke with a sultry voice. The white wraith narrowed her eyes in focus and a ravenous smile dominated her face. Her feet shuffled closer to the inviting maw of the cavernous satin blanket. "You're so damn lame." she replied in suit. As the bleached buxom blonde rushed at her hostess with scarlet lips seeking for contact, a blast of shattered glass shards exploded into the room without warning...
Ringing. All they could hear was a sharp, persistent ringing. The room reeked of a foul smokey odor as dust collected in the air around them. Taylor lied in her bed with palms to her ears and eyes shut tight. It appeared that the full brunt of the explosive shockwave reached her first what with her head's proximity to the window. The other was fairly unscathed aside from the subsiding ringing in her ears. Her eyes looked up to the blown in glass in front of her. And when she turned back to the wall opposite of the window, Jades saw the wooden surface riddled with holes like it was swiss cheese. "Oh shit..." she whispered in the dreaded silence. The ivory skinned invertebrate grabbed Taylor's hand from the mattress and carried her off the bed with great haste as a bedlam of bullets tore the windowside wall to smithereens.
"Oof! Thanks, Jae! Hold on, I need me effects!" She watched her one eyed friend scurry off to fetch a change of clothes while she left out the door to the hallway. Beads of sweat were already forming on her brow and her breaths were growing in tempo. What the hell is going on?! Why are we under attack? It was a curious question but not important for the time being; their main priority was escaping the cabana and as for what would happen next, she was not sure. They simply needed to survive, both of them.
Jades ran straight for her room at the back of the building, opened the door and instinctively reached out where she knew the handle to her drawers were. A cropped white t shirt and black jeans were all there was in the first and her iron hammer remained sitting plump on top. She scoffed to herself at this lack of a sizable wardrobe but now was not the time for such critique. The still-naked ghoul climbed furiously into her attire without a moment to waste. She winced at two odd sensations in her bosom and remembered her shortage of torso clinging underwear. "Goddamn it Tay..." Before she could kneel to the second drawer to retrieve her jacket, her bedroom window broke open from the impact of a round object. It clanged hard against the floorboard and rolled at her feet with a metallic hum. Time froze and the ghost's breath went still. Her frosted eyes went pale with fear. And the ringing in her ears grew shriller by the milliseconds.
The next thing she remembered was sitting behind the cover of her bedroom door with the muffled explosion of a bomb going off behind her. Somehow she had also managed to grab the mallet that had been laying atop the nightstand but not her jacket. At that moment, Tay ran out of her room finally dressed and ready but Jades remained on the floor shaken by the situation. "What's wrong wit' you? Let's go!" the spunky young spitfire exclaimed at her companion. Yet the girl continued staring off into the distance like something still disturbed her. Not being one to waste time, Tay promptly slapped the white faced clown. "Git your 'ead on straight! Now come on, Jae!" Another explosion could be heard inside Jades' room except now the blast sent the door off its hinges and the girl along with it. Taylor dragged the doll out from the debris with a frown and carried her to what once was their living room.
All around their abode was broken glass shards scattered across the floor, wads of cotton from furniture spread on the domain like a winter field, and splinters shattered from the chairs and table spewed out among the mess. "My house..." Tay whispered with a hint of sadness, though with her clenched fists and gnarled teeth it was hardly the only thing she felt in that moment. She felt a hand grasp her knuckles and saw that the blonde had returned somewhat to her senses. Jades faintly smiled and the the two of them stood in mourning for their ruined home as bullets and bombs flew freely in through the apertures. The woman in white clutched her partner's hand tightly and grinned with a curious look on her face, "What are you waiting for idiot? I thought you said to get the f*ck outta dodge."
She stretched out her hand and gestured in a circular motion multiple times until tension filled her palm and she could feel power resonating in her hands. Jades brought it to her core and sighed anxiously with her eyes on the door in front of them. The two looked at each other and nodded in unison, fully aware that no words needed to be spoken. The cyclops and the harlequin armed themselves and raised their boots to the entrance. "Let's get outta here!!" The hardwood doors flew off their hinges at the might of their heels. Gunfire ceased at the sudden ruckus and dozens of firearms could now be heard clicking in their direction. Before she could even move a single step, a voice cried from beside her, "GET AWAY FROM MY HOUSE OR I'M KILLING ALL OF YOU!!" Jades groaned. Son of a bitch...
"Get down!!"
A hail of bullets came tearing through the air just as she ducked for cover, Taylor's head now grasped tightly under her palm. In an instant, half of the veranda disappeared to a fine wooden mist in the wind. A majority of the porch was also blown to kingdom come and every glass pane in the windows now lay in a million pieces on the floor. The two breathless women that barely avoided the barrage sat with their backs to the wall, stunned by their mortality. "Why'd you have to say anything?..." Jades said shakingly. A simple cock of the rifle was the first thing she heard before these words left Taylor's mouth, "Dey' broke my home. Now I'll break them all!"
The hotheaded buffoon would have gone out to a bullet hell if it hadn't been for Jades keeping her locked down the ground. She held onto the girl's belt and holster and threw her petite frame back against the wall with just a single hand. The other free hand spent its time pinning the rifle to the dirt. Tay prepared to protest the interruption until the one eyed caramel saw tears welling up in her friend's field of view. "...Will you stop charging in at every little thing and listen to me?!...Don't you realize you're worth more than giving up your life away for a f*cking house?"
It stayed silent for a time being, the two sitting in their own silent zone as the world was burning up around them. A blaze began to form in the background as the bombs set off earlier had ignited the all wood structure of the cabana. Tay looked to her ravaged household, eyes red with rage, as if she was solemnly convicted by a duty to end those who caused her and her property harm. Her fingers clenched and Jades began to feel her own strength failing to hold her dearest companion down. Another whisper was all she could muster, "Please...let it go." And for the first time possibly in her life, the harlequin felt her own sense of duty calling out to her. Not for the sake of retribution but for preservation; keep Taylor safe, at all costs.
The tension died but her warm brown face still glowed from the fiery plume, eyes beaming with brilliant sadness and awe. Her arms eased up and the blonde comically fell into the wall face first without the former landlord holding her back from pushing. Taylor picked her up off the floor and smiled at her with a warm, welcome grin. "We'll build a better one, Jae...Together." Her hand extended out, awaiting a reply. Jades looked up at her, with her nose red from the fall, and smiled from ear to ear. From one white hand to a brown one, the two worlds were on a course for collision when suddenly...One final explosion burst behind them.
The momentum sent boards flying into the sky like rockets with flames tailing behind them as they soared. Molten glass shards melted into the dirt and singed any plant life along the way. Even various articles of clothing came arcing out of the blast like poorly projected fireworks, which evidently answered a semi-topless blonde's curiosity. So there's my bra... In the midst of the bedlam, gunfire had halted for the time being but the duo knew well enough that the armistice would not last long. They had to escape the chaos before any of these unidentified gunmen began to advance on their location.
Jades looked at Taylor and she looked back at her. The two cracked a smile and slammed their hands together, interlocking their fingers between one another. There was no other plan in their heads now than the one they shared together. "Are you ready for this?" the pale harlot asked sarcastically. Her partner in crime couldn't help but act a little audaciously, with her eye pointed straight at the blue eyed wonder she mused tauntingly, "Git the f*ck outta dodge, am I right?" The duo managed to share a chuckle even in a situation such as theirs.
A shout from faraway signaled what could be the end of the ceasefire and the white clad maiden guessed it wouldn't take long for a rain of bullets to tears the entire structure they rested on to be turned into swiss f*cking cheese just like the wall in Taylor's bedroom. The way to escape would not be easy but it was far from impossible. After all, it was Venus Jades these gunmen were dealing with. She was no ordinary pirate with an ordinary Devil Fruit to say the least. And she didn't plan on dying today from a group of nobodies. The woman gestured to her comrade with a nod and began to form a ring with her fingers positioned near her core. Slowly, she began to expand the circle. A low rumbling overtook their surroundings and it became apparent the wooden walls around them were bending to some strange force. Even the fine dust and splinters that flew out from the debris were now suspended midair and circling all around her. "Let's see just how useful those guns are against this..." she slithered with a sinister tongue. Taylor jumped in her seat, ready to witness the show that she'd been waiting patiently to see. "Come on Jae! Make em' pay!" A few more seconds of breathing and expanding passed by before those cruel blue eyes rose up with zeal. "Let them suffer, yes?" The white haired toddler giggled madly with anticipation as her friend stood up without hesitation from their hiding spot. She sauntered casually out of the safety of the walls and stood flat forward facing the men of steel. The bullets all ceased but she could hear the barrels turning. They were all pointed at her now. She could feel it. The dozens, no, hundreds of firearms clicked in the air with a metallic thunder that echoed through the cavernous jungle. All of their wielders were in it for the kill. Yet all of them were in for a rude awakening.
The violence, the rage, it all came exploding towards her with the wrath of a thousand arrows. She stood there in wait, as if she had accepted her fate. But such an outcome was not to be expected. As how could a victor envision defeat?...She slid a foot back and raised an arm forward, the rumbling in her core now focused in her palm. Jades grinned with delight and howled with laughter, the pathetic gifts of men pleasing her immensely. The harlequin then screamed in ecstasy with her hand high up in the air,
And it was as if time had frozen still; every iron shell fired from the gunmen remained suspended in space right in front of the jubilant jester and her dopy smiling face.
For a few seconds, the men were dazed at the phenomenon before them. Not soon after the bullets that hung in thin air like puppets on strings began to take course around the outside, around the outside, out of the ringmaster's grasp. She weaved and waved her hands spastically yet so gracefully that not a single ounce of energy was wasted in forming the cycle of force around her. There was a silence in the wind as if all the rage that had took the gunmen dissipated with their futile attempt of a bullet barrage. "Was that it?! Was all you had to give? If so, I humbly decline your offer!!" And with her swinging hands, Jades thrust out her fingers unto the mob and an ardent riptide of steel flew through the air towards them.
They ducked, of course they ducked. When it came down to it, all yellow bellied cretins of the world bowed before the might of superior firepower. These men were no exception to that rule, as Jades smugly observed. The hail of metal she sent soaring into the jungle perforated through the emerald foliage as a sneeze would spray through a tissue. Every inch she could see in the distance darkened in color where the bullets would land as every surface affected caved in from the impact of each individual shell. A plume of dust formed from the heavy fire she ensued but that was of no concern to her. They were taught well enough that their puny ammunition stood no chance against her. Jades snickered at the sight of it then walked back where her consort awaited her.
"Holy shit, Jae!! What was that damage?!" The one eyed wonder came rushing out of her hiding spot after the chaos simmered down to but a minor tension. It turned out these people were no threat outside of being homewreckers, in the literal sense, and were most likely not going to harm the two. Jades was sure of it after the demonstration she exhibited that no one on this battleground could match her in raw power. She laughed heartily as Taylor approached her and relaxed herself, believing the fight to already be over. "I told you didn't I? Those guns aren't so useful now, are they? Hahaha!-"
Her blue eyes glanced over at the origin of the sound only to be met with the view of a solid black sphere surging in her direction. In the strangest of circumstances, it was now the harlequin who found herself frozen in time. She could barely hear Taylor standing beside her, barely feel her feet planted firmly into the dirt. What was this sensation again? This deep, lingering doubt in her gut. She felt it in the cabin just moments before escaping to the other side of her bedroom door. No memory of the events in between existed in her head, as if the girl operated purely out of instinct without a second to waste on thinking. But this was different. This was no stationary bomb in the middle of her room; this was a rapidly advancing projectile that was far beyond her control. She had underestimated these men after all; they did in fact have the firepower to not only match hers but surpass it. I...I can't stop it. I'm not strong enough. A-and now we're going to die because of me...I couldn't save us. I...I. Before she could even react, a hand dragged Jades' pale neck away just before a barrel sized cannonball soared past them with a fiery trail.
The shell exploded upon impact behind them but the two left the scene unscathed. They tumbled and rolled in the wet grass but were otherwise uninjured by the blast. Taylor, who had shielded her much taller accomplice from the bomb, stood back up trying to prop up the frozen damsel. "Git up, ya daft bitch!! They're coming after us!" Yet Jades remained lying in the grass with her eyes wide open, her lips whispering ever so softly, "I couldn't save you...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry..."
But the half-pint was not about to surrender so easily after all the two had been through. She took the stupid blonde onto her shoulders and ran to the direction of the coast where she knew they'd be safer. Handling a firefight in the middle of a jungle with so many chokepoints was a recipe for disaster. With her natural affinity for the trees and awareness of her homeland's geography, Tay sprinted without hesitation through the jungle with ease as the rest of the gunmen toted their artillery behind them. On the way, Jades continued her self deprecating monologue and eventually ticked off her partner into a rage, "Hey knock if off, ya bish! You saved us plenty of times! Now get your butt in gear and walk for yourself! My boots are getting heavy!!" From behind, the sound of gunfire could be heard and occasionally a tree beside them would be marked by a bullet cleaving through the bark. Taylor swore under her breath and persisted forward, Jades still on her back.
The harlot looked up in a daze at the sight of dozens of firearms all aimed directly at them. They were out to kill us, she thought, but more importantly, they were out to kill...Tay. At least that is what she believed in the moment. For but an ephemeral moment, Jades felt it again. The urge to protect, to preserve the chocolate child carrying her through the wood. And for that brief time, she felt liberated by any duty to herself, that all efforts to finally end her miserable life would be worth the sacrifice if it meant defending the one person she met who cared enough in the first place. "Tay...I can run now. Let me down." she spoke with a calm voice that hadn't been used since the placid morning.
The pint-sized sprinter obliged and heaved breath after breath from the tiring trip. "You know you're packing some weight, these days? Hoo, man...Uh Jae?" But the ringmaster paid no attention to her banter, she cared only about one thing. Her hands rose in front of her and spun once again with torrential fervor. The roar of a stampeding crowd approached them in the deep parts of the jungle and the trees quaked to their marching feet. "Jae?! What are you doing? Let's go, remember?!" But she stayed where she was, steadfast in the conviction that drove her to this moment.
They could see them all now, dozens, perhaps even a hundred or more, all scurrying towards their location like moths to the flame. Taylor pulled the girl in panic to hurry along but the clown queen of chaos did not budge. She stood in wait, until they all advanced to exactly where she needed them. Closer, closer, and closer they came. Until an inch more they encroached where Jades lay her trap. With one massive arc of her arms, she expanded the orbit around her and brought the entire jungle bending to her will. The timberland between them and the gunmen creaked and bowed until an avalanche of green came crashing betwixt the two parties. She turned to Tay who stood wide eyed in awe and said to her nonchalantly, "Now we can go..."
Half an hour passed until the two finally escaped the emerald maze and landed near the town square. The duo breathed with an unsteady pace but were fine overall. Jades looked to her friend with a smile as if everything would be fine. Taylor returned the gaze with a raised eyebrow of her own, "What you lookin' at?" she interrogated. The chuckling clown turned her views to the city sights until she stopped at a nearby wall riddled in parchment. In that instant, she felt paralyzed once more. "It's alright..." she whispered trying to reassure Tay, but let slip the anxiety in her voice. Her feet took her closer to the board until those icy blue orbs were virtually kissing the glass case protecting it. In the dead center of the announcement board were three names and one long number:
She gagged, she dry heaved, she nearly fainted from the sight of it. The pirate fell to her knees in defeat. So this is why those men are here...They want me...Just me. Jades felt the belligerent sniper nudging her from the back but couldn't respond. A revelation such as this needed time to be processed and any subsequent decisions heavily weighted. But there was no moment to waste moping on the floor; Jades ran straight for the Queendom's harbor leaving her comrade behind deeply confused. In a matters of seconds though, Taylor managed to keep up, unsure where she was being taken, but picked up on clues as they passed by familiar locations. "You wanna go on a cruise now? We don't got the money, y'know." But the witty comment was lost to the wind and her friend continued running. Even when Tay ceased her banter and managed to claw at the pale woman's back to turn around, she refused. Something had gone disastrous but the cinnamon gunslinger was done waiting for answers. The pale haired chick knew she had suffered enough of this infernal silence. Without hesitation, she grabbed onto the blonde, smashed her heel into the concrete and stopped the both of them dead in her tracks. "Ay, slow down Jae! What's the rush? We lost those fools, didn't we? So where are you going off alone? Well!?..ANSWER ME!!..."
No further words broke the deathly calm. Jades kept her back facing the rambunctious youth. Her typically scarlet lips now ran cold with an awful violet as the azure of her eyes sunk to an oceanic oblivion. She was being abhorrent, thoughtless, hurtful by not considering how Taylor felt in this moment. Yet how on earth could she face her partner with such a pathetic display? "PLEASE! TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON!!" another exclamation exploded behind her. Even then, she couldn't bear to muster the courage and tell her friend what tortured her so. But it mattered naught, for fate soon revealed the paths to her. In the distance, canopies exploded from the timberland and the concrete jungle of Cuauhmaitl mingled with the wildlife. Iron men wielding iron barrels marched from the harsh lands and found the pair's bearings in a matter of seconds. Taylor only needed one eye to realize their doom was approaching. She turned and clung onto Jades, animalistic and desperate with rage, screaming point blank into her ears, "TALK TO ME, JAE!! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!"
Eventually, patterns evocative of handprints stamped the once placid surface until five dark fingers thrust the canvas aside from them. A shriek, playful in tone, accompanied the reveal and a ghastly pale figure emerged from the mattress, her lightning blue eyes fixed straight on the owner of those pentamerous caramel digits. Her lips curved back like sickly sickle blood cells and her teeth glowed bright like a crescent moon on a cloudless night. "Bitch."
Taylor laughed deviously, the fingers of her free hand still holding onto a garment of symmetrical weight, black in hue and curvaceous in shape. She waved it frivolously in her fingertips as if it were ready to go jumping out the window any moment. And the consort opposite of her tried diligently to maintain the composure of a dignified woman in all her nude glory.
The fabric barren phantom huffed and puffed in the frigid morning air, her blue eyes seemingly growing colder through every breath. Both vanilla and chocolate women gazed at each other with longing eyes, but longing for different things. Taylor smirked, dangling the garment. And Jades snarled, following the black cloth with hungry irises. "Come an' get it, Jae~" Taylor spoke with a sultry voice. The white wraith narrowed her eyes in focus and a ravenous smile dominated her face. Her feet shuffled closer to the inviting maw of the cavernous satin blanket. "You're so damn lame." she replied in suit. As the bleached buxom blonde rushed at her hostess with scarlet lips seeking for contact, a blast of shattered glass shards exploded into the room without warning...
Ringing. All they could hear was a sharp, persistent ringing. The room reeked of a foul smokey odor as dust collected in the air around them. Taylor lied in her bed with palms to her ears and eyes shut tight. It appeared that the full brunt of the explosive shockwave reached her first what with her head's proximity to the window. The other was fairly unscathed aside from the subsiding ringing in her ears. Her eyes looked up to the blown in glass in front of her. And when she turned back to the wall opposite of the window, Jades saw the wooden surface riddled with holes like it was swiss cheese. "Oh shit..." she whispered in the dreaded silence. The ivory skinned invertebrate grabbed Taylor's hand from the mattress and carried her off the bed with great haste as a bedlam of bullets tore the windowside wall to smithereens.
"Oof! Thanks, Jae! Hold on, I need me effects!" She watched her one eyed friend scurry off to fetch a change of clothes while she left out the door to the hallway. Beads of sweat were already forming on her brow and her breaths were growing in tempo. What the hell is going on?! Why are we under attack? It was a curious question but not important for the time being; their main priority was escaping the cabana and as for what would happen next, she was not sure. They simply needed to survive, both of them.
Jades ran straight for her room at the back of the building, opened the door and instinctively reached out where she knew the handle to her drawers were. A cropped white t shirt and black jeans were all there was in the first and her iron hammer remained sitting plump on top. She scoffed to herself at this lack of a sizable wardrobe but now was not the time for such critique. The still-naked ghoul climbed furiously into her attire without a moment to waste. She winced at two odd sensations in her bosom and remembered her shortage of torso clinging underwear. "Goddamn it Tay..." Before she could kneel to the second drawer to retrieve her jacket, her bedroom window broke open from the impact of a round object. It clanged hard against the floorboard and rolled at her feet with a metallic hum. Time froze and the ghost's breath went still. Her frosted eyes went pale with fear. And the ringing in her ears grew shriller by the milliseconds.
The next thing she remembered was sitting behind the cover of her bedroom door with the muffled explosion of a bomb going off behind her. Somehow she had also managed to grab the mallet that had been laying atop the nightstand but not her jacket. At that moment, Tay ran out of her room finally dressed and ready but Jades remained on the floor shaken by the situation. "What's wrong wit' you? Let's go!" the spunky young spitfire exclaimed at her companion. Yet the girl continued staring off into the distance like something still disturbed her. Not being one to waste time, Tay promptly slapped the white faced clown. "Git your 'ead on straight! Now come on, Jae!" Another explosion could be heard inside Jades' room except now the blast sent the door off its hinges and the girl along with it. Taylor dragged the doll out from the debris with a frown and carried her to what once was their living room.
All around their abode was broken glass shards scattered across the floor, wads of cotton from furniture spread on the domain like a winter field, and splinters shattered from the chairs and table spewed out among the mess. "My house..." Tay whispered with a hint of sadness, though with her clenched fists and gnarled teeth it was hardly the only thing she felt in that moment. She felt a hand grasp her knuckles and saw that the blonde had returned somewhat to her senses. Jades faintly smiled and the the two of them stood in mourning for their ruined home as bullets and bombs flew freely in through the apertures. The woman in white clutched her partner's hand tightly and grinned with a curious look on her face, "What are you waiting for idiot? I thought you said to get the f*ck outta dodge."
She stretched out her hand and gestured in a circular motion multiple times until tension filled her palm and she could feel power resonating in her hands. Jades brought it to her core and sighed anxiously with her eyes on the door in front of them. The two looked at each other and nodded in unison, fully aware that no words needed to be spoken. The cyclops and the harlequin armed themselves and raised their boots to the entrance. "Let's get outta here!!" The hardwood doors flew off their hinges at the might of their heels. Gunfire ceased at the sudden ruckus and dozens of firearms could now be heard clicking in their direction. Before she could even move a single step, a voice cried from beside her, "GET AWAY FROM MY HOUSE OR I'M KILLING ALL OF YOU!!" Jades groaned. Son of a bitch...
"Get down!!"
A hail of bullets came tearing through the air just as she ducked for cover, Taylor's head now grasped tightly under her palm. In an instant, half of the veranda disappeared to a fine wooden mist in the wind. A majority of the porch was also blown to kingdom come and every glass pane in the windows now lay in a million pieces on the floor. The two breathless women that barely avoided the barrage sat with their backs to the wall, stunned by their mortality. "Why'd you have to say anything?..." Jades said shakingly. A simple cock of the rifle was the first thing she heard before these words left Taylor's mouth, "Dey' broke my home. Now I'll break them all!"
The hotheaded buffoon would have gone out to a bullet hell if it hadn't been for Jades keeping her locked down the ground. She held onto the girl's belt and holster and threw her petite frame back against the wall with just a single hand. The other free hand spent its time pinning the rifle to the dirt. Tay prepared to protest the interruption until the one eyed caramel saw tears welling up in her friend's field of view. "...Will you stop charging in at every little thing and listen to me?!...Don't you realize you're worth more than giving up your life away for a f*cking house?"
It stayed silent for a time being, the two sitting in their own silent zone as the world was burning up around them. A blaze began to form in the background as the bombs set off earlier had ignited the all wood structure of the cabana. Tay looked to her ravaged household, eyes red with rage, as if she was solemnly convicted by a duty to end those who caused her and her property harm. Her fingers clenched and Jades began to feel her own strength failing to hold her dearest companion down. Another whisper was all she could muster, "Please...let it go." And for the first time possibly in her life, the harlequin felt her own sense of duty calling out to her. Not for the sake of retribution but for preservation; keep Taylor safe, at all costs.
The tension died but her warm brown face still glowed from the fiery plume, eyes beaming with brilliant sadness and awe. Her arms eased up and the blonde comically fell into the wall face first without the former landlord holding her back from pushing. Taylor picked her up off the floor and smiled at her with a warm, welcome grin. "We'll build a better one, Jae...Together." Her hand extended out, awaiting a reply. Jades looked up at her, with her nose red from the fall, and smiled from ear to ear. From one white hand to a brown one, the two worlds were on a course for collision when suddenly...One final explosion burst behind them.
The momentum sent boards flying into the sky like rockets with flames tailing behind them as they soared. Molten glass shards melted into the dirt and singed any plant life along the way. Even various articles of clothing came arcing out of the blast like poorly projected fireworks, which evidently answered a semi-topless blonde's curiosity. So there's my bra... In the midst of the bedlam, gunfire had halted for the time being but the duo knew well enough that the armistice would not last long. They had to escape the chaos before any of these unidentified gunmen began to advance on their location.
Jades looked at Taylor and she looked back at her. The two cracked a smile and slammed their hands together, interlocking their fingers between one another. There was no other plan in their heads now than the one they shared together. "Are you ready for this?" the pale harlot asked sarcastically. Her partner in crime couldn't help but act a little audaciously, with her eye pointed straight at the blue eyed wonder she mused tauntingly, "Git the f*ck outta dodge, am I right?" The duo managed to share a chuckle even in a situation such as theirs.
A shout from faraway signaled what could be the end of the ceasefire and the white clad maiden guessed it wouldn't take long for a rain of bullets to tears the entire structure they rested on to be turned into swiss f*cking cheese just like the wall in Taylor's bedroom. The way to escape would not be easy but it was far from impossible. After all, it was Venus Jades these gunmen were dealing with. She was no ordinary pirate with an ordinary Devil Fruit to say the least. And she didn't plan on dying today from a group of nobodies. The woman gestured to her comrade with a nod and began to form a ring with her fingers positioned near her core. Slowly, she began to expand the circle. A low rumbling overtook their surroundings and it became apparent the wooden walls around them were bending to some strange force. Even the fine dust and splinters that flew out from the debris were now suspended midair and circling all around her. "Let's see just how useful those guns are against this..." she slithered with a sinister tongue. Taylor jumped in her seat, ready to witness the show that she'd been waiting patiently to see. "Come on Jae! Make em' pay!" A few more seconds of breathing and expanding passed by before those cruel blue eyes rose up with zeal. "Let them suffer, yes?" The white haired toddler giggled madly with anticipation as her friend stood up without hesitation from their hiding spot. She sauntered casually out of the safety of the walls and stood flat forward facing the men of steel. The bullets all ceased but she could hear the barrels turning. They were all pointed at her now. She could feel it. The dozens, no, hundreds of firearms clicked in the air with a metallic thunder that echoed through the cavernous jungle. All of their wielders were in it for the kill. Yet all of them were in for a rude awakening.
"FIRE!!!!"
The violence, the rage, it all came exploding towards her with the wrath of a thousand arrows. She stood there in wait, as if she had accepted her fate. But such an outcome was not to be expected. As how could a victor envision defeat?...She slid a foot back and raised an arm forward, the rumbling in her core now focused in her palm. Jades grinned with delight and howled with laughter, the pathetic gifts of men pleasing her immensely. The harlequin then screamed in ecstasy with her hand high up in the air,
"THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION!"
And it was as if time had frozen still; every iron shell fired from the gunmen remained suspended in space right in front of the jubilant jester and her dopy smiling face.
For a few seconds, the men were dazed at the phenomenon before them. Not soon after the bullets that hung in thin air like puppets on strings began to take course around the outside, around the outside, out of the ringmaster's grasp. She weaved and waved her hands spastically yet so gracefully that not a single ounce of energy was wasted in forming the cycle of force around her. There was a silence in the wind as if all the rage that had took the gunmen dissipated with their futile attempt of a bullet barrage. "Was that it?! Was all you had to give? If so, I humbly decline your offer!!" And with her swinging hands, Jades thrust out her fingers unto the mob and an ardent riptide of steel flew through the air towards them.
They ducked, of course they ducked. When it came down to it, all yellow bellied cretins of the world bowed before the might of superior firepower. These men were no exception to that rule, as Jades smugly observed. The hail of metal she sent soaring into the jungle perforated through the emerald foliage as a sneeze would spray through a tissue. Every inch she could see in the distance darkened in color where the bullets would land as every surface affected caved in from the impact of each individual shell. A plume of dust formed from the heavy fire she ensued but that was of no concern to her. They were taught well enough that their puny ammunition stood no chance against her. Jades snickered at the sight of it then walked back where her consort awaited her.
"Holy shit, Jae!! What was that damage?!" The one eyed wonder came rushing out of her hiding spot after the chaos simmered down to but a minor tension. It turned out these people were no threat outside of being homewreckers, in the literal sense, and were most likely not going to harm the two. Jades was sure of it after the demonstration she exhibited that no one on this battleground could match her in raw power. She laughed heartily as Taylor approached her and relaxed herself, believing the fight to already be over. "I told you didn't I? Those guns aren't so useful now, are they? Hahaha!-"
POW!!
Her blue eyes glanced over at the origin of the sound only to be met with the view of a solid black sphere surging in her direction. In the strangest of circumstances, it was now the harlequin who found herself frozen in time. She could barely hear Taylor standing beside her, barely feel her feet planted firmly into the dirt. What was this sensation again? This deep, lingering doubt in her gut. She felt it in the cabin just moments before escaping to the other side of her bedroom door. No memory of the events in between existed in her head, as if the girl operated purely out of instinct without a second to waste on thinking. But this was different. This was no stationary bomb in the middle of her room; this was a rapidly advancing projectile that was far beyond her control. She had underestimated these men after all; they did in fact have the firepower to not only match hers but surpass it. I...I can't stop it. I'm not strong enough. A-and now we're going to die because of me...I couldn't save us. I...I. Before she could even react, a hand dragged Jades' pale neck away just before a barrel sized cannonball soared past them with a fiery trail.
BOOM!!!
The shell exploded upon impact behind them but the two left the scene unscathed. They tumbled and rolled in the wet grass but were otherwise uninjured by the blast. Taylor, who had shielded her much taller accomplice from the bomb, stood back up trying to prop up the frozen damsel. "Git up, ya daft bitch!! They're coming after us!" Yet Jades remained lying in the grass with her eyes wide open, her lips whispering ever so softly, "I couldn't save you...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry..."
But the half-pint was not about to surrender so easily after all the two had been through. She took the stupid blonde onto her shoulders and ran to the direction of the coast where she knew they'd be safer. Handling a firefight in the middle of a jungle with so many chokepoints was a recipe for disaster. With her natural affinity for the trees and awareness of her homeland's geography, Tay sprinted without hesitation through the jungle with ease as the rest of the gunmen toted their artillery behind them. On the way, Jades continued her self deprecating monologue and eventually ticked off her partner into a rage, "Hey knock if off, ya bish! You saved us plenty of times! Now get your butt in gear and walk for yourself! My boots are getting heavy!!" From behind, the sound of gunfire could be heard and occasionally a tree beside them would be marked by a bullet cleaving through the bark. Taylor swore under her breath and persisted forward, Jades still on her back.
The harlot looked up in a daze at the sight of dozens of firearms all aimed directly at them. They were out to kill us, she thought, but more importantly, they were out to kill...Tay. At least that is what she believed in the moment. For but an ephemeral moment, Jades felt it again. The urge to protect, to preserve the chocolate child carrying her through the wood. And for that brief time, she felt liberated by any duty to herself, that all efforts to finally end her miserable life would be worth the sacrifice if it meant defending the one person she met who cared enough in the first place. "Tay...I can run now. Let me down." she spoke with a calm voice that hadn't been used since the placid morning.
The pint-sized sprinter obliged and heaved breath after breath from the tiring trip. "You know you're packing some weight, these days? Hoo, man...Uh Jae?" But the ringmaster paid no attention to her banter, she cared only about one thing. Her hands rose in front of her and spun once again with torrential fervor. The roar of a stampeding crowd approached them in the deep parts of the jungle and the trees quaked to their marching feet. "Jae?! What are you doing? Let's go, remember?!" But she stayed where she was, steadfast in the conviction that drove her to this moment.
They could see them all now, dozens, perhaps even a hundred or more, all scurrying towards their location like moths to the flame. Taylor pulled the girl in panic to hurry along but the clown queen of chaos did not budge. She stood in wait, until they all advanced to exactly where she needed them. Closer, closer, and closer they came. Until an inch more they encroached where Jades lay her trap. With one massive arc of her arms, she expanded the orbit around her and brought the entire jungle bending to her will. The timberland between them and the gunmen creaked and bowed until an avalanche of green came crashing betwixt the two parties. She turned to Tay who stood wide eyed in awe and said to her nonchalantly, "Now we can go..."
Half an hour passed until the two finally escaped the emerald maze and landed near the town square. The duo breathed with an unsteady pace but were fine overall. Jades looked to her friend with a smile as if everything would be fine. Taylor returned the gaze with a raised eyebrow of her own, "What you lookin' at?" she interrogated. The chuckling clown turned her views to the city sights until she stopped at a nearby wall riddled in parchment. In that instant, she felt paralyzed once more. "It's alright..." she whispered trying to reassure Tay, but let slip the anxiety in her voice. Her feet took her closer to the board until those icy blue orbs were virtually kissing the glass case protecting it. In the dead center of the announcement board were three names and one long number:
VENUS 'CELESTIAL' JADES
31,000,000
31,000,000
She gagged, she dry heaved, she nearly fainted from the sight of it. The pirate fell to her knees in defeat. So this is why those men are here...They want me...Just me. Jades felt the belligerent sniper nudging her from the back but couldn't respond. A revelation such as this needed time to be processed and any subsequent decisions heavily weighted. But there was no moment to waste moping on the floor; Jades ran straight for the Queendom's harbor leaving her comrade behind deeply confused. In a matters of seconds though, Taylor managed to keep up, unsure where she was being taken, but picked up on clues as they passed by familiar locations. "You wanna go on a cruise now? We don't got the money, y'know." But the witty comment was lost to the wind and her friend continued running. Even when Tay ceased her banter and managed to claw at the pale woman's back to turn around, she refused. Something had gone disastrous but the cinnamon gunslinger was done waiting for answers. The pale haired chick knew she had suffered enough of this infernal silence. Without hesitation, she grabbed onto the blonde, smashed her heel into the concrete and stopped the both of them dead in her tracks. "Ay, slow down Jae! What's the rush? We lost those fools, didn't we? So where are you going off alone? Well!?..ANSWER ME!!..."
No further words broke the deathly calm. Jades kept her back facing the rambunctious youth. Her typically scarlet lips now ran cold with an awful violet as the azure of her eyes sunk to an oceanic oblivion. She was being abhorrent, thoughtless, hurtful by not considering how Taylor felt in this moment. Yet how on earth could she face her partner with such a pathetic display? "PLEASE! TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON!!" another exclamation exploded behind her. Even then, she couldn't bear to muster the courage and tell her friend what tortured her so. But it mattered naught, for fate soon revealed the paths to her. In the distance, canopies exploded from the timberland and the concrete jungle of Cuauhmaitl mingled with the wildlife. Iron men wielding iron barrels marched from the harsh lands and found the pair's bearings in a matter of seconds. Taylor only needed one eye to realize their doom was approaching. She turned and clung onto Jades, animalistic and desperate with rage, screaming point blank into her ears, "TALK TO ME, JAE!! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!"
...
"EVERYTHING!!"
The white-haired marksman took a step back and paused. The bitter silence that Tay desperately wished to disappear was immediately shattered by the shrill cry of the howling harlequin. Jades looked into the girl's one good pupil with her own pair of trickling glacial spheres. The pirate's pale complexion was severed by aqueous sorrow on both divisions of her face. Even her teeth were exposed like gnarled snow capped mountain ranges. The once golden locks that showered her scalp now bore more resemblance with that of decaying autumn leaves.
Everything of the woman was hideous and screamed omens to beware of her existence. Perhaps that was why Jades finally chose to speak out against her mistress. She needed her to retreat to safety, even if it meant leaving the harlot forever. But Taylor, typical Taylor, scoffed at the clown's countenance. And Jades grew ill with despair at her reaction. In one last desperate attempt, she clutched onto the half-pint's body in an embrace, lips low enough so her words could reach, and spoke with a broken voice as strong as she could,
"...Everything in my life has always burnt up in flames.
Families, friends, hopes and dreams.
I never thought I could suffer any more until I was broken beyond my imagination.
Beaten, humiliated, corrupted and destroyed.
Never in my life did I believe I could ever change my fate...
Until you came along..."
The maiden in white felt herself squeezed between her caramel consort and felt another tear drip down her cheek.
"...You took me as I was even with all the flaws before me.
Nurtured and cared like no one else did.
You gave me a reason to fight for the first time in my pathetic life.
Someone to die for all the same reasons.
And that's exactly why I could never ask you to come with me..."
Her strong arms rose themselves off the body of her beloved as she began to turn away. But her tender union had seemingly not yet ceased. Jades looked down at the face staring back at hers. She saw Taylor, grinning, her good eye straining to stay dry, and skin feeling colder than usual. The both of them looked at each other one last time with deep, enduring longing as if the details of every inch on their faces would be the last memories both women would ever see of the other. They smiled at each other, with sadness in their eyes, but they smiled.
The ebony queen crowned in ivory spoke one last time before her grasp faded away, "Do what ya gotta do, Jae. And dun let no one stop ya..." Taylor finally released her hold and started her path away from the clown queen of chaos when an unexpected grip seized her pallid crest and pressed her bust to those of another. In front of her single scope, Jades' face hovered mere centimeters away before it dove in and joined their lips together. The two blended their passions while both their palms gently caressed the other's luscious cheeks, a beautiful silence surrounding them from their unspoken embrace. Flesh unto flesh, the women melted into one another until their eyes opened wide and the two were two once more.
Jades stroked aside a strand of hair veiling Tay's ochre eye. "...I love you. Always, 'til the end of my days..." Taylor wiped the remnants of her beloved's tears off her pale face, "Then run, ya fool. Run!"
Their bodies parted, then their hands, and at last their fingers were joined no more. The sound of her friend's fleeting footsteps left the harlot by herself once again, only now she was unafraid of the destiny to come. For there was no reason to fear so long as she had the reason. Jades glimpsed into the emptiness of the town one final time and saw what appeared to be white hair upon an amber youth. She smiled, turned and sprinted towards the ocean. The reason was you. It's always been you...
Finally, an army of explosions came parading down the streets as the sunlit sinner beamed in the stone walkway of the morning star. Gunshots echoed through the azure plains and smoke tailed rockets sped through the air. The prancing rogue cared naught of such trivial threats by this point though. She'd accepted her fate. Behind the woman, hundreds of faceless pursuers shouted her name and waved her parchment portrait like pennons for their queen. Bullets ricocheted off the cobblestone she ran across as blasts of fire and smoke emerged around her as though she lived in an infernal wonderland all to her own.
Soon enough, the witch reached the end of the dock and her strutting died to a mild tapping. Hundreds of clicks rang through the air and the hundreds behind them all stood in wait. Jades looked to the men, grinning madly as she always born to do. With hands spread out, fingers contorted, she screamed aloud for all to hear, "Come on then. I'M F*CKING READY!!!"
Bullets hailed, cannonballs soared, rockets flew and she remained laughing all the same. The vessels docked to their sides swayed from the force of the firearms. Holes formed in the hull and clips of the keel tore off until each and every ship began to sink. Jades laughed maniacally and spun her hands just as she'd done before. The sea surrounding them swerved and swiveled as the nautical cadavers formed into a mahogany hurricane of endless destruction. Dozens of rockets all aimed on one spot as dozens of cannons did the same. The men knew now this was no threat they could contain; it had to be wiped off this earth...
...
"EVERYTHING!!"
The white-haired marksman took a step back and paused. The bitter silence that Tay desperately wished to disappear was immediately shattered by the shrill cry of the howling harlequin. Jades looked into the girl's one good pupil with her own pair of trickling glacial spheres. The pirate's pale complexion was severed by aqueous sorrow on both divisions of her face. Even her teeth were exposed like gnarled snow capped mountain ranges. The once golden locks that showered her scalp now bore more resemblance with that of decaying autumn leaves.
Everything of the woman was hideous and screamed omens to beware of her existence. Perhaps that was why Jades finally chose to speak out against her mistress. She needed her to retreat to safety, even if it meant leaving the harlot forever. But Taylor, typical Taylor, scoffed at the clown's countenance. And Jades grew ill with despair at her reaction. In one last desperate attempt, she clutched onto the half-pint's body in an embrace, lips low enough so her words could reach, and spoke with a broken voice as strong as she could,
"...Everything in my life has always burnt up in flames.
Families, friends, hopes and dreams.
I never thought I could suffer any more until I was broken beyond my imagination.
Beaten, humiliated, corrupted and destroyed.
Never in my life did I believe I could ever change my fate...
Until you came along..."
The maiden in white felt herself squeezed between her caramel consort and felt another tear drip down her cheek.
"...You took me as I was even with all the flaws before me.
Nurtured and cared like no one else did.
You gave me a reason to fight for the first time in my pathetic life.
Someone to die for all the same reasons.
And that's exactly why I could never ask you to come with me..."
Her strong arms rose themselves off the body of her beloved as she began to turn away. But her tender union had seemingly not yet ceased. Jades looked down at the face staring back at hers. She saw Taylor, grinning, her good eye straining to stay dry, and skin feeling colder than usual. The both of them looked at each other one last time with deep, enduring longing as if the details of every inch on their faces would be the last memories both women would ever see of the other. They smiled at each other, with sadness in their eyes, but they smiled.
The ebony queen crowned in ivory spoke one last time before her grasp faded away, "Do what ya gotta do, Jae. And dun let no one stop ya..." Taylor finally released her hold and started her path away from the clown queen of chaos when an unexpected grip seized her pallid crest and pressed her bust to those of another. In front of her single scope, Jades' face hovered mere centimeters away before it dove in and joined their lips together. The two blended their passions while both their palms gently caressed the other's luscious cheeks, a beautiful silence surrounding them from their unspoken embrace. Flesh unto flesh, the women melted into one another until their eyes opened wide and the two were two once more.
Jades stroked aside a strand of hair veiling Tay's ochre eye. "...I love you. Always, 'til the end of my days..." Taylor wiped the remnants of her beloved's tears off her pale face, "Then run, ya fool. Run!"
Their bodies parted, then their hands, and at last their fingers were joined no more. The sound of her friend's fleeting footsteps left the harlot by herself once again, only now she was unafraid of the destiny to come. For there was no reason to fear so long as she had the reason. Jades glimpsed into the emptiness of the town one final time and saw what appeared to be white hair upon an amber youth. She smiled, turned and sprinted towards the ocean. The reason was you. It's always been you...
Finally, an army of explosions came parading down the streets as the sunlit sinner beamed in the stone walkway of the morning star. Gunshots echoed through the azure plains and smoke tailed rockets sped through the air. The prancing rogue cared naught of such trivial threats by this point though. She'd accepted her fate. Behind the woman, hundreds of faceless pursuers shouted her name and waved her parchment portrait like pennons for their queen. Bullets ricocheted off the cobblestone she ran across as blasts of fire and smoke emerged around her as though she lived in an infernal wonderland all to her own.
Soon enough, the witch reached the end of the dock and her strutting died to a mild tapping. Hundreds of clicks rang through the air and the hundreds behind them all stood in wait. Jades looked to the men, grinning madly as she always born to do. With hands spread out, fingers contorted, she screamed aloud for all to hear, "Come on then. I'M F*CKING READY!!!"
Bullets hailed, cannonballs soared, rockets flew and she remained laughing all the same. The vessels docked to their sides swayed from the force of the firearms. Holes formed in the hull and clips of the keel tore off until each and every ship began to sink. Jades laughed maniacally and spun her hands just as she'd done before. The sea surrounding them swerved and swiveled as the nautical cadavers formed into a mahogany hurricane of endless destruction. Dozens of rockets all aimed on one spot as dozens of cannons did the same. The men knew now this was no threat they could contain; it had to be wiped off this earth...
...
Somewhere in the town, the one eyed sniper watched
High and low, from sky to coast
But her lover had been lost
The last sight she knew of her runaway friend
Was a fiery tower and a woman at...
The End.
But her lover had been lost
The last sight she knew of her runaway friend
Was a fiery tower and a woman at...
The End.
