A homecoming...sort of

[falken]

[OOC: Upon Ias' request, just subbing for his NPC, Jovi Rockwell. Hopefully, I didn't mess anything up. ]

Jovi cringed as his fellow pirates fell one by one. In his own defense, the angered man reached for his wooden sword. He would avenge his fallen comrades! This man was merely lucky with the first few hits, but it would end now.

"You're m-messing with the wrong person, f-fool! I'm worth three, four, five, six... s-six million! That's more digits than I can count on my fingers! You're nothing compared to me!"

Despite his grand talk of the status he had achieved, the hand which held the sword shook in anxiousness. Wait. He didn't need to fear this man. Yes, he had the MILF! The Magical and Incredibly Large Falchion sold in Saint Reia for only 150 beri, of course! There was no way that scrawny little wannabe kid could beat him.

With a now confident smirk, Jovi tossed away his wooden weapon and drew a shabby and poorly made steel weapon from his waist. The pirate laughed heartily, "You have no chance against me anymore! With my Magical and Incredibly Large Falchion with me, there's no way I can lose! Hello. My name is Jovi Rockwell. You killed my crew. Prepare to die."

[ias]

<sub>* This young man isn't too bright * Rip Van Winkle Vladimir thought has he heard Jovi speak of his bounty and upon drawing a large Falchion from his waist " So youn" coughing under his Gas Mask clearing his throat "Sorry about that....This happens when your old....So now young man...Do you think just because you worth a measly Six Million Beri..You can kill me ?... Urahahahahahaha..... Your stupider than i thought.....I have at least seventy Years of experience on the battle field and have captured higher bounties than yourself....Your nothing but a premature root that I will pluck out of the ground and burn you into smithereens today here and now... " Rip Van Winkle Vladimir explained to Jovi... With his trusty Stun Knife in his right hand and his Golden Flintlock in his left hand in which he aimed precisely at Jovi's shoulder and chuckled underneath his Gas Mask and said with a distorted sound "Briinnnging A Swwwordddd Toooo A Guunnnn Fightttttt... " firing a Choke Gas Bullet at the aforementioned spot....

While after firing the bullet not wanting to give Jovi any time to react Rip Van Winkle Vladimir rushed forward in a swiftly manner at incredible speeds towards Jovi the pirate with the low bounty and lunged at his Wind Tunnel with the Stun Knife fully charged and ready to fry his ass that wanted to challenge and kill the Old Man that was referred to has " The End" due to his habit of always finishing whatever job was assigned to him in all his many years of being a Bounty Hunter / Mercenary.....</sub>

[stormcrow]

Malachii blinked as the club whirred towards his boulder with deadly purpose. The balance on that club was superb.. he though, I wonder fi the kid would...

He blinked again "Oh shi.." he started to say as he rolled away from the boulder as it was shattered by the force of the club striking it. He came to a stop against another boulder, his hands going out to steady himself as he was pelted with rock fragments and choking dust filled the air. He heard the sound of running foot-steps up the slope, he stifled a cough as he pinpointed where the sound was coming from. After obtaining what he felt was the right position of the kid, he bent down and picked up a large rock and threw it to his left, listening to it crash into the slope and kick up a horrible ruckus as it slid around. He stepped quietly down the slope in the direction where the kid came from. There was some sort of snake thing down there too, he would probably have to avoid that one. He waited for the kid to pass him, and listened with a slight grin on his face as there was shuffling around.

"Did you expect me to just stay where you wanted me to kid?" Malachii said, peering at the giant snake thing curiously with the pistol pointed lazily up the slope.

[moshmosh]

Myo grimaced as he felt his fists met nothing but air. "Shut up!" He said with a shout, his already mounting anger only growing at the voice's goad. Feeling around blindly, he felt the icy touch of his weapon amongst the shattered boulder and wrapped his fingers around the grip.

The boy gritted his teeth; the dust that had gotten kicked up was starting to make his eyes water. He considered rubbing them, but he wasn't going to give the intruder a chance. If someone had tracked him all the way back here, they most likely didn't hold the best intentions for him, and it was a distinct possibility that he was outnumbered again. Back at the town was different; his objective had just been to get away. Now that they had found where he was keeping Orko, that was no longer an option. He had to go on the offensive.

Shifting his weight forward, he tore the weapon from the ground and charged back down the slope to where he thought he had heard the voice.Bursting out of the dust like a raging beast. Myo was surprised when he only saw one person, but it did little in the way of slowing him down. He swung the tremendous weapon across in a wide, crushing arc towards the human's torso. However, his movement with the weapon was awkward at best, and his stance was remarkably open, even for a heavy weapon. It was quite clear he had little to no actual experience when it came to fighting. But even so, this did little to detract from the destructive force he was wielding.

[stormcrow]

"Such an interesting weapon..." Malachi said out loud as he watched the mace arc toward him. At the last moment he leaned backward as the club whistled past his stomach.

"Your form is rather sloppy kid" Malachi said as he stepped in close to the fish kid and pressed his pistol against his temple. "Bang" he said before dancing away from the kids furious return swing.

"Just swinging blindly ain't gonna do you much good against an opponent who knows what he is doing" he commented, side stepping a furious overhand swing the buried the head of the club into the stony ground. "Though you are strong" he said as he leaned forward and patted the kid on the head in a fatherly manner. Chuckling and stepping away as the kid wrenched the club out of the ground with an explosive curse and swing it at Malachi again.

"And more importantly" he said as the club slammed into his ribs, Malachi did not even attempt to dodge it. He stumbled sideways a couple steps before planting his right foot into the ground and clamping his arm over the club, trapping it to his side.
"You style does nothing for an opponent that cares NOTHING FOR HIS OWN SAFETY" he roared out the last as he slammed his fist into the kids throat as hard as he could. He lifted his other foot and full out kicked the kid directly in the chest, sending him stumbling back several steps.

Malachi looked at the club still in his hand for a moment before dropping it to the ground and falling to a knee holding his ribs.
"Damn but your strong" he gasped out, panting for breath and wincing as he did so.

[moshmosh]

It was exceedingly clear that as the battle proceeded, the young fishchild was outmatched. No matter how hard he swung, or how much he tried, he could do nothing to push the man back. And quite possibly the worst part about it was how casual he was! Furrowing his brow after feeling the cold metal of the man's pistol move from his temple, he let out a shout and swung again. Myo felt humiliated at how easily his unstoppable (In his opinion) weapon was thrown aside. When he finally felt his club crash into the man's ribs, he looked up in a combination of surprise and satisfaction. However, what greeted him after this was not what he expected.

The punch crashed into his windpipe, his throat convulsing wildly at the sudden impact. Without even a chance to blink, a kick sent Myo flying backwards to the ground. Whatever breath had been left in his lungs was forced out, and he brought a hand to his neck in some fruitless attempt to rectify his airways. His weapon, temporarily forgotten, rolled back down the hill towards the ocean.

After several long moments of panicked suffocation, he managed to regain his breath, taking as many lungfuls of air as he could to make up for the time he had lost. Suddenly aware of his vulnerable position, Myo tried to move, but found his body flared up with a fierce resistance against such an action. But gritting his teeth, he bore with it, digging his hands into the rocks and quite literally pulling himself to his feet. He let out a gasp of pain; every muscle in his body seemed to be on fire. It was all he could do not to just fall over again. Taking in ragged breaths, he stared up at the human who had invaded his hideaway with all the contempt that a creature in his position could muster. "If you're going... to beat me up too, leave Orko out of it."

[stormcrow]

Malachii hauled himself to his feet, giving himself a shake and wincing as he did so.
"Orko..?" he looked around for someone that could have the name Orko. "I have no idea what you are talking about kid" he said, turning his back on the the fish-kid and walking over to where the weapon had rolled. He pushed his boot underneath the haft and lifted it up slightly, bending over and grasping the end of it with one hand he leaned it up and started to examine the grain of the wood in the haft.
"This is a very interesting weapon kid" he leaned on the club slightly, checking the flex of the haft. He gave a slight grunt of approval and slid his hand down to the center point and lifted it into the air, sighting down it to check if it was warped at all.
"Well made" He swung it experimentally, teetering a bit as he had to adjust for the momentum of the swing "Damn heavy too, how do you swing this around" he asked, looking at the kid with a bit of new found respect.
He looked around some more "Now where is this Orko you speak of" he said, leaning on the club "And why would i kill him?"

[moshmosh]

Myo's eyes opened wide, as he saw the stranger's hands touch the fallen weapon. "Don't touch that!" He said with a shout, lunging forward as to stop the man. However, the limits of his battered body quickly caught up with him, and all he really managed to do was fall to the ground. The act earned him the contempt of several sharp rocks that were positioned directly underneath him. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he made a mental note to try and set up bases in less-pointy environments from now on.

Fighting with his muscles for every hair's breadth of movement, the child managed to put a hand against the rock and, at the very least, push his head back up. "That's... my dad's. He would never let an enemy..." His elbow, having shown remarkable resilience up until this point, had finally reached his limit, and sent his head back to the ground.

Down at the bottom of the hill, Orko had hungrily drained the barrel of its milky contents. But, not willing to let any of its treat go to waste, it had enlisted the aid of its long, serpentine tongue to coax out any last remnants of flavor from the obscurest of crevices that the barrel had to offer. However, in its enthusiasm, it had unconciously lifted the vessel off the ground, the wood sliding down its face and covering its eyes. Blissfully unaware of this shift of circumstances, the only thing the creature's brain registered was the sudden lack of leverage with which to push its head further inside the barrel. And in an attempt to regain it, it began pushing its body further forward, completely blind of what was in front of it. The large aquatic beast promptly rammed its head into the rock wall, making a thunderous sound as the barrel splintered into bits. This left only a few scraps of wood, and a very confused serpent.

[stormcrow]

Malachii stood over the child, staring down at him for a long moment. He watched the child's ragged breathing as he strained yet again to get up, and failing. Malachii shook his head and walked over to where the serpent thing weaved, blinking at him in confusion.

Malachii stared at it for a long moment before reaching out a hand. The serpent reared back and stared at him. With a rustle of scales on rock it slid forward tentatively, stretching out its neck to touch Malachii's hand with his nose. He reared back and stared at Malachii again. Malachii didn't move, so the serpent leaned forward and touched his nose to his fingers again, slowly nudging his head underneath and looking up at Malachii with soulful eyes.

He stared down for a moment before he burst out laughing and scratched the beast along the snout, listening to it grunt in pleasure. Malachii gave him a good long scratch before walking over to where the kid lay, gasping. He knelt down and turned him over, the kid swung weakly at him. Malachii grabbed the hand that had swung at him and used it as leverage to swing the kid up onto his shoulder. The kid flailed weakly as Malachii settled him onto his shoulders.
"Quit struggling, Ill drop you on your head" Malachii said, giving him a shake as he started to walk back up the path in the direction of town.

[moshmosh]

Myo gave one last angry kick, or the closest thing to it he could manage, and slumped in his captor's arms. He glared sideways at his serpentine companion, who was still cooing in response to the stranger's attention. Spiteful at his decisive defeat and further compromising position, Orko's indifference only served to piss him off more. "Traitor." He muttered under his breath.

Crossing his arms and giving an angry harumph, he decided to spend his time doing his very best to bore a hole through the back of the man's head with his eyes. After several minutes reaching only limited success, he turned his thoughts to something marginally more productive.

'Well, on the bright side.' He almost scoffed at himself. There wasn't much of a bright side to getting his ass kicked twice in one day. 'Orko only needs to eat every couple of days, maybe a bit longer since he drank the whole barrel.' The fishchild thought quietly. 'If this guy takes me to the prison in town, I can probably get out by then.'

"Hey! Wait a second!" Myo exclaimed, suddenly realizing that something of dire importance had been left defenseless among the rubble. "Pop's club! I can't leave it here!" He exclaimed, lurching forward as if to grasp the weapon.

[stormcrow]

Malachi gave his burden a rough shake as he flailed away at something.
"The club?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at the weapon lying on the rocks. "It is to fine a weapon to be left here" he reached across with his free hand and thumped the fish kid on the top of the head "Quiet down, I wont forget it" he said as he turned back and walked over to the weapon, grunting as he bent down to pick it up, steadying his burden as best he could. He tied his sack one handed around the end of the club, ignoring the kids strangled protest's ; and leaned the club over his shoulder with the bag hanging down behind him. Properly situated he started back towards the town...

With fish kid and club over his shoulders he crossed over the outskirts of the town, with evening settling over the town there were not many people in the streets; but those that were could only stop and stare at the spectacle. Malachi did not even turn his head, he just kept on walking along through the town until he reached a large three story house that had multiple sheds going off of it, and a large work yard in the back.

With a sigh he let the club and the kid fall to the ground, ignoring the strangled yelp from the kid.

"Mr. and Mrs. Benten" He called out, cupping his hands around his mouth. "Fauxette" he called out, a bit more questioningly" He looked around, noticing several lights on in the house and some on in one of the sheds, someone had to be home..