DC - Blood-Vorse Core Chptr 04

Chapter 34: The title of Dark Arms

The next morning they managed to reach a beach, Alex was setting up a small boat she made.
"Are you sure about this?" Max asked, "I mean come on, are we seriously going to sail a small boat that will barely hold us all AND our supplies all the way to an arctic island which we don't even know where it is and how to navigate?"
Alex sighed, "I've been through this before, there are no boats sailing to Artantica, this is our only way, and I do have some equipment that will help navigate us there, further more Artantica isn't as far off as you think, just look ahead and you shall see it right there."
Max looked hard with his glove over his eyebrows, squinting his eyes but he couldn't see anything, the fog was thick and he could barely see a mile across the water.
"It still begs the question, are we really going to sail all the way there?"
"You betcha!" Alex winked
"You think of everything" Max yelled
"It seems like you knew we were going to cross the water." Said Daisy
"Luck favours to those who prepare dear Daisy" Alex said, "we are not sight-seeing, we are on a mission, so I brought the basics"
Justin came along carrying a small steel box, "and you brought this to prepare too?"
"Aha, my radar!"
Max just tuted at this and muted under his breath "thinks of everything"
Daisy was looking beyond the ocean, wondering about something, she felt something but she couldn't tell what, "I say we be cautious" Daisy announced to the others, "I don't know why but I have a strange feeling something is out there"
Tomo put his arm around Daisy, "This coming from the girl with Water powers"
She just smiled at his wit, but then now that it was brought up, she can't help but think that was the point.

Without another word, everyone got on the boat and decided to set sail, with Alex's radar it was easy to navigate, and it looked like they weren't going to have much trouble crossing, an hour had passed and with the help of Alex's radar they were on course and due to the wind getting colder they could tell they were getting closer.
"Why don't any boats from Merzo sail to Artantica anyway?" Justin asked, "to be home to one of the landmarks it must be an important destination."
"From what I've heard," answered Daisy, "its dangerous for normal ships to get to Artantica, there are many icebergs around the perimeter of the island, many of which are just below the surface, larger vessels would have a hard time avoiding them."
"That and the fact that there is only one town on the entire island" Tomo added, "there isn't much of a reason to travel there."
"That's sad," said Justin, "the people there must struggle to survive with little connection to the outside world"
"Actually the people there seem to be just fine" said Alex "they have plenty of food and supplies, and if there is a real emergency, Merzo City will send one of its rescue boats to help out, but only as a last resort, the people there want to be independent, but not so much that they remain too helpless."
"I've never been to Artantica" Tomo smiled, "word has it that Artantica is home to mammoths, that's something I would love to see."
"Aren't Mammoths extinct?" asked Alex
Before Tomo could say anything else, something showed up on Alex's radar
"What is it?" Daisy asked getting up.
"Look!" Justin yelled, pointing to the right of the boat, a vague shadow of a ship can be seen in the distance, it was hard to tell what kind of ship it was with the fog being so thick.

On board the ship, it seems as if the people aboard had picked up on their presence too.
"We have picked up with our sonar another vessel captain!"
"Is it serious?"
"A small paddle boat, with four men aboard sir!"
The captain took a giant sniff, "I know that smell, it couldn't be."
"Orders sir?"
"Ready the cannons, blast their ship out of the water, and bring them to me!"

Alex had her binoculars out looking to the east, the ship appears to be turning round slightly."
"Is that a…"
KABOOM! The ship fired a cannonball directly towards their ship, it missed but the impact in the water caused the boat to rock with the waves.
"They're shooting at us!" Tomo shouted! "With a cannonball?"
"It's a pirate ship" Alex pointed out
"Pirates in these waters?" Max yelled
"We need to react quickly!" Alex shouted, "get out of here as soon as possible!"
Tomo got to the back of the boat, and turned his arms into plasma to form a propeller, Daisy was about to help too, about to reach for her staff when something shocked her, she couldn't tell what it was but it caused her to freeze, she knew she could just use her powers to cause the waters to tip in the direction of her choosing but for some reason she felt it wasn't a good idea.
"Daisy what's wrong?" said Justin, this snapped her out of it.
"Oh, nothing" and she was about to put her staff into the water and generate some water to flow forward, but it was too late, two more cannonballs fired, one missed, the other hit the boat dead centre!

Everyone abandoned ship just before the blast and thus no one was hurt, when they got to the surface, the ship and the supplies was all in pieces.
"What do we do now?" asked Max, and began to start nudging Alex, "didn't prepare for this did ya!"
"How was I supposed to know there were pirates out here?" she shouted
"Just when I was beginning to see that the brave Alex McButterfly always prepared for anything…"
Alex grabbed hold of Max and was about to punch him when something from beneath the water grabbed her leg, causing both she and Max to sink into the ocean.
"What was that?" Daisy asked nervously, just then something pulled Daisy in too.
"This isn't good!" said Tomo, and turned his arms into plasma again preparing to strike at whatever was coming for him, he got dragged in but Justin saw as Tomo tried to struggle against it, and thankfully broke free and grabbed what was attacking him out of the water. It looked like a dolphin at first, but it had legs and a pair of swimming shorts. They couldn't believe their eyes, "What the hell is this?" Tomo exclaimed, then suddenly, "GRAB 'EM MEN!" and in a flash, many more appeared and managed to take Tomo down.
Justin was alone and looked around him, he looked back to the ship that attacked them, getting closer and closer. He then noticed those same dolphin things coming out of the water, and just caught a glimpse of Alex and Max, before he himself was dragged into the ocean. Justin felt big beefy arms hugging him tightly, Justin could see whatever had got him was swimming directly to the ship itself.

When they got there, his captor sank deeper for a moment but then swam really fast in an attempt to jump onto the ship. They shot out of the surface, Justin gasping for air, and could properly see a very old wooden vintage pirate ship. He landed with a thud, his captor releasing him out of his arms, only to grab Justin's arm to force him to walk in a general direction. You wouldn't believe it, the whole pirate crew looked like mutant fish people, some were Dolphins, some were Penguins, some were Seals, but they all had beefy arms and strong legs, and wore pirate clothing and hats, Justin was soon with everyone else in a line.
"Can someone tell me what is going on?" Justin asked
"Wish I could" Alex replied
"Keep ya traps shut!" said the pirate holding Alex, "the captain has ordered all of ya aboard the 'Deep Europa' to have a personal chat with yeh."
"The Deep Europa?"
"The name of the ship" Tomo mentioned, "I saw it marked on the side of the ship on the way up."
"QUIET SEA BISCUITS!" Announced one of the Walrus people, "the captain is ready to see you now!"
All went quiet once the door to the captain's room opened up with a slam, and our rose their captain, walking slowly towards them.

Daisy was the first to come face-to-face with him, he wore baggy shorts over his thin but strong legs, Daisy had to look up to see his face. Unlike the other crewmates aboard the ship, the captain seemed to resemble a white killer whale, all white and black with round white circles next to his eyes. He had a long line of short but sharp teeth, and a large scar across his forehead; he wore a big pirate hat with a pirate mark, which resembled a sperm whale biting a harpoon. He bent down a little to take a closer look at Daisy.
"Yeh have nothing to fear lass", he said in a gruff but savvy and calm voice, "to be with a crew as weird as we must be no different from the shady-looking crew yeh be sailin' with, and yet somehow there is something about you seems different from any human."
He paused impressively and turned to look at Alex, noticing her wings and antenna.
"And what are you supposed to be?"
"I was about to ask you the same question" she replied, moving slightly as she was not happy that he was trying to grab hold of her left upper wing.
"Even if yeh were to fly, it is so cold you would freeze up before getting very far, and why you would be sailing these waters on such a small boat is quite questionable."
"Its this one Captain Orca!" said the Dolphin-man holding Tomo, "I can feel it, the crew can feel it, its really him."
He walked towards Tomo and crouched down and began to inspect him, sniffing and poking
"Take a picture" Tomo joked, but then he somehow came to a conclusion and grabbed Tomo by the throat and slammed him against the mast.
"Why do you smell like him?" he growled
"What?"
"I can feel his presence here, but you are clearly not the dark one!"
"The Dark one?" Daisy questioned.
"The man who ruined us all, the man responsible for what we are, freaks of nature bound to sail the seas for eternity with little way of getting back."
"Start from the beginning" Tomo pleaded, "We have no idea what you are talking about. We mean no harm to you if you mean no harm to us."
The Captain just chuckled, his laughter grew louder and louder, as did the entire crew, and with that the captain punched Tomo in the stomach, Daisy, Alex and Justin watched in horror as he took the hit.
"We are Pirates!" the Captain yelled, "We do as we want in these waters."
"Is that the best you got?" Tomo laughed, he looked as if the punch didn't even phase him, Orca looked at his fist, he could feel as if the fist goes right through him and his fist is touching the mast through his blue T-shirt, he opened his T-Shirt to see Tomo had morphed into plasma and made a giant hole in his stomach to avoid getting hit. Daisy, Justin, Alex and Max cheered at this but felt the grips to their wrists tighten and stopped.

Orca felt tricked, but then laughed, "So you are related, the same powers as he, purple gooey form, the ability to form your body shape as you please, the same as the Dark One."
He dropped Tomo only to put his foot under him.
"Who here remember the Dark one and what he did to us"
"YEAH!" yelled the entire crew.
"For over forty years we sailed these waters free as birds, plundering many treasures and valuables, avoiding many enemy ships, until that faithful day when we were tricked! Barrel upon barrel of the famous 'Guyrowahna', better than any tobacco and yet with greater risks were plundered from an empty ship, valuable they were and were loaded onto our ship in hopes to sell them, but to no avail. Until one day ten years ago we encountered a very powerful being, who took us all on and burnt every barrel of guyrowahna along with the entire ship, the fumes were intoxicating and this pleasure suddenly became our pain, when we came to we saw what we had become."
"I still don't get it" Max whispered.
Alex explained all about it, "Guyrowahna is an illegal substance used in cell-fusion, doctors have found a method to reattach any limb to limbless patients by using this substance to fuse the limb to any host without killing him in a process of physical metamorphosis, it gives the patient an arm with feeling and proper movement as if the arm never left, the problem with it is that it can fuse with anything and used the wrong way can fuse the human body to any living tissue it comes to contact with, causing a mutation. This entire crew must have been exposed to its effects when it was burnt and fused with sea mammals."
"That somewhat makes sense" said Daisy, "but why is it illegal if its that helpful."
"It isn't perfect, reattaching an arm for example, it may not work as its intended and could cause a fatal mutation, like it could attach the hand to the shoulder for example. That and guyrowahna is also used as an illegal drug substance, when smoked it can cause pleasurable illusions, but the risk of cell-fusion still persists, leading up to an immediate ban of the substance, every last piece of it had been destroyed."
"And who was that man who burned that entire ship and left us to die?"
"DARK ARMS LARRCOS!" they chanted, everyone was in shock to hear that name, Larrcos was behind this? No wonder Tomo was being questioned, and why being able to turn into plasma was so familiar to them.
"Now hold on!" Tomo shouted, "I am sorry for your loss, but I can promise you we had nothing to do with any of it."
"But you smell like him!" Captain Orca accused, "You can morph your body like he can, and why should I trust a descendant of his after what he did to us? We were near Merzo when it happened, he came aboard suddenly and asked if we could stay anchored for as long as possible, upon refusal we fought and never stood a chance against his power and he burnt our entire supply and left us to be engulfed in its flames causing us to mutate into what we are now, I will never forgive that man for cursing us and when we meet again I will make him sorry he ever crossed with the Deep Pool Pirates!"
"Larrcos?" asked Max "Isn't he that vampire dude that bit Tomo and gave him his powers but then Tomo beat the living snot out of him and killed?"
The crew were in shock, Tomo, Daisy, Justin and Alex just starred at Max as if he just said a bad word. Alex rose her foot in the air and kicked Max in the face hard.

"YOU BLOODY IDIOT! YOU HAD TO OPEN YOUR BIG MOUTH!"
The crew were confused; they had mistaken Max for a cannonball until now
"You killed Larrcos?"
"Larrcos is dead" Tomo answered, "he bit me and gave me his powers but I wasn't interested in his goals, plus he was about to go for my friends and so, I finished him. I'm sorry you can't have your revenge but at least he's gone, right?"
"That would explain it" Captain Orca said smiling, "whoever said I cannot take my revenge here and now?"
He released Tomo from under his foot.
"Clear the main deck, and bring me my weapons!"
Most of the crew walked to the upper-decks of the ship from either side, some just went inside and looked out of the window. Two Dolphin people were carrying two small rusty anchors with chains attached and process to attach Orca to them. Orca had small mechanisms on his shoulders that reeled in the chains and the anchors fitted snugly on his forearms.

"You cannot hide it, the entire crew feel his presence, and it makes perfect sense why, what's your name boy?"
"Names Tomo, Captain Orca is it? If it's a fight you want you've got one, but on one condition…"
"Let your friends free, yes I've heard than one before." He then called out to his crew, "Unhand them! They are no threat to us, they might as well enjoy the show."
They did so, and so they watched below as they prepare to fight.
"I call a wager" Tomo kindly requested of Orca
"Oh? And what makes you think we would be happy to take on any request?"
"On the pretences that this ships captain would be knocked out cold."
"What be your request?"
"Do you know of a place called Artantica? If so you are to take us there unharmed, and let free, simple?"
Captain Orca just starred at him and laughed
"You have no idea what's in Artantica boy, but that seems fair, but if we win we want something in return."
"More so than beating the living hell out of the last remaining City Vampire who beat Larrcos?"
Orca paused impressively.
"The location of the City of Merzo!"
"YOU CAN'T!" Daisy shouted, "if they get into Merzo without our protection who knows what'll happen!"
"Deal"
"TOMO? WHAT THE HELL?"
"I get it," said Alex, "these pirates were going after Merzo anyway right? It's actually good fortune we happened to have appeared on this ship, we can defend Merzo without even being there, and once they drop us off on Artantica they would be even more lost without a radar or map to guide them there, they've been lost at sea this entire time right?"
"There is still a chance Tomo could lose." Justin told her
Alex just pulled a face as if to say "you seriously think he is going to lose?" but Max knew, because he was trying to make bets around some of the crewmembers in the attempt to swindle their money upon Tomo's victory.
"Agreed?" Tomo asked, Orca just nodded in agreement and poised for Battle.
"Lets see if you earn the title of Dark Arms!"

And so, the battle begun, and Orca made the first move, by attempting to smash Tomo in the face but Tomo was quick to dodge, good thing or he would have been crushed by the anchors Orca was carrying on his forearms. Orca kept trying to hit Tomo with his anchors, but Tomo was too fast and too flexible with his plasma, after this Orca decided to lung a big attack.
"DROPPING-ANCHOR!" and by lunging one of his arms he released the mechanism on his shoulders to allow the anchor on his right forearm to be thrown at Tomo, he dodged this too and hit the main mast of the ship with a crash! Surprisingly though, the mast remained undamaged by the blow, not even a scratch, despite the fact that that amount of force with something that heavy would have snapped that mast in half.

"What power!" Max said in surprise, "that was enough force to tear this entire ship apart!"
With the shoulder-mechanisms, the chains were woven back to allow Captain Orca to get back his anchors for another attack, as one anchor retracted back to him he threw the other and repeated this process to lung several attacks on Tomo, Tomo was barely missing these attacks and many times were scratched from barely getting out of the way (not that this mattered because he was in Plasma form and even the slight damage didn't affect him).
Daisy was concerned, Max was right, the force of these anchor attacks would indeed have brought the ship down. "How is Orca able to launch these attacks and not leave a scratch on the ships surface?"
Some of the crewmates next to them chuckled, and one of the Penguin Pirates answered, "ever heard of Impact control? It's a special talent that our Captain has that prevents this very flaw."
"That makes sense, and that could only mean…"
"You know of Impact Control?" said Alex to Daisy, "what is it exactly?"
"Its exactly what is being shown, the fact that he is lunging his attacks onto the ship without breaking it, that is because he is focusing his inner strength into his weapons and with intense focus he is able to concentrate on his true target and avoid conflict with everything around him."
"I still don't get it" Max said with a mouth-full of popcorn
"I don't know everything about it, but with the right training and the right focus he would realise in a split-second that his anchors aren't going to hit his target, so rather than recklessly attacking and thus destroying everything around him, he can time his moves perfectly and retract his anchors in such a way that when it hits the wall it would bounce the anchors back, rather than going right through the walls."
"But that's good isn't it?" asked Alex, "That means that if the anchors do hit Tomo then nothi…" but before she could say anymore, Orca's attacks caught up with Tomo, and against the wall he took a fatal blow to the stomach, Tomo didn't suffer too much from being in Plasma form, but he still took damage.
"I got you scum!" Orca laughed
"Is that it?" asked Tomo, "looks like it's my turn, now lets see you dodge this!"
Now it was Tomo's turn to attack, but unfortunately Orca was too quick and was able to use his anchor weapons as shields against Tomo's claw attacks.
"Try this! PLASMA VICE!"
Tomo turned his arms into blades and slammed them together with Orca in the middle like scissors, but Orca held up his anchors to block them and then broke out to throw his arms down (anchors and all) onto Tomo's head, but Tomo wasn't ready to give up yet and soon they were delivering blows to each other, Tomo's claw and Plasma attacks and Orca's Anchors attacking and blocking each other, not one of them giving up!
"Looks like they aren't going to stop anytime soon" Max pointed out, he wasn't talking to anyone in particular, he turned round to see if anyone was listening and when he turned round to look at Daisy he noticed she was feeling a little ill, not from the fight but from something else. Max didn't think it was anything so decided to continue watching the fight, this was at the precise moment that Daisy walked away.

"Your acrobatic skills are impressive!" Orca yelled, "But now its time to end this with my ultimate attack!"
Orca loosened the chains so the anchors could drop onto the floor and then raised his arms in the air, beginning to spin the anchors round and round.
"EYE OF THE TYPHOON!!!"
He jumped into the air still spinning his anchors, and then threw them down onto the deck, where the spinning anchors would land. Since they were spinning it was hard to tell where they were going to land, and the impact of these anchors would be so great it would be hard to survive. The anchors land, and as they did they continued to spin around the ship itself, hitting every inch of the lower deck save for the one circle of space that is Orca's position. No one had ever avoided this attack before which explains the loud round of applause from the crew, they knew Tomo had won!
"You were never a match for me boy!" Captain Orca said triumphantly, still swinging his anchors around.
"The attack is called 'Eye of the Typhoon' right?" Tomo asked him, Orca looked around to see where that was coming from, he was limited due to the fact that he kept attacking, and did not realise that Tomo was directly behind him back-to-back.
"Where are you?" Orca shouted, Tomo turned his hands into knives and casually stabbed the mechanisms on his shoulders, in doing so the anchors were no longer in Orca's grip and thus swung around the ship freely, one hit the mast, the other hit the wall near the front of the ship, both of which broke into the ship!
"MY SHIP!" Orca shouted in frustration, "By destroying my chain-retractors you made me lose focus of my Impact Control! MY SHIP IS RUINED!"
"And now its time to end this with MY MOVE!" Tomo shouted with a big grin on his face.
Tomo catapulted himself into the air, and clenched his fists and swung his arms behind him, turning the fists into one big hammer, then as he came back down…
"PLASHAMMER!!!"
He slammed his attack right into Captain Orca's chest, not only hurting him, but causing the deck below him to crack, the ship was destroyed and Orca defeated.

At the sight of this, Tomo noticed that the crew were coming down with swords and guns attempting to get at Tomo, he was about to fight back when he noticed his friends were at sword-point to their necks.
"Deal is a deal" Tomo pointed out, "get over it"
"Yeah" Max shouted, "get over it, he won and that's that!"
"We're Pirates!" they laughed!
They were about to strike when they were hit by something, it felt like a huge wave had hit the ship, and considering the state of the ship that wasn't good, the crew could feel this and rushed straight to the lifeboats.
"THE SHIP IS GOING DOWN! ABANDON SHIP!" they shouted, they weren't paying attention to Tomo, Max or any of his friends. Alex knew what to do, she went downstairs to the captains room and robbed one of their tables, it was just large enough to hold everyone, she threw it out of the window smashing it and when she saw it float she flew to the upper deck.
"OVER HERE!" she called to the others, everyone ran towards Alex, knocking away any crewmember that tried to prevent them from escaping, Tomo, Max and Justin jumped in her direction and tried to climb aboard the table.
"Lets get out of here!" Max said
"Wait!" shouted Justin, "where is Daisy?"
Alex flew around the ship to see if there was any sign of her and called her name, but Tomo noticed, amongst the crew diving down into the water, he noticed something floating in the water, a white shoe. Upon seeing this Tomo took a deep breath and went into the water in an attempt to find her in the ocean below.

A few minutes past, Alex, Max and Justin were on the table and the tides were moving the table away from the ship, now sinking into the ocean.
"They're definitely not on the ship" Alex said to them, "if they are underwater we should see them soon."
"The pirates are half fish" Max mentioned, "If they are fighting underwater then…"
"We can only hope they are ok" interrupted Justin.
They waited a while longer, but thankfully; both Tomo and Daisy rose from the water gasping for air, Alex and Justin helped them aboard the table, coughing water.
"Thank goodness"
"Thanks for the help" Daisy said to Tomo
"Enough chit-chat!" Max yelled "LETS GET OUT OF HERE!"
Alex flew and grabbed two of the legs on the table and began to push. Alex managed to spot an island in the distance "I can see it! Artantica is just over there!".
The pirates floating in the water watched as they got away, Captain Orca just rose from the water.
"CURSE YOU DARK ARM TOMO!" he yelled waving his fist at them, "YOU ARE NO DIFFERENT FROM LARCOSS, WHY DOES YOUR KIND MOCK ME? IF WE EVER MEET AGAIN I'LL BE SURE TO SETTLE THE SCORE, YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE LAST OF CAPTAIN ORCA!!!"

End of Chapter 4