Through sheer willpower, Miguel winces as he pulls himself up on his side to look at Scar, who slowly approaches him. The tentacles split into pairs of two, each set sliding around Miguel’s limbs. They tug him into the air and start to pull, stretching Miguel into a spread eagle position. Miguel grits his teeth as he resists being pulled taut, fighting the will of the shadow arms. Scar’s silver eyes glisten with sadistic elation.
“Piece by piece, Mr. Morales."
Chapter 17
Luna’s First Dance
After counting in her head for what seemed like a small eternity, Luna finally switches back on the lights. She timidly pulls herself out from her hiding position and looks out over the ballroom. Sakura sits very casually on a table, her leg propped up on her side and her arm draped over her knee. Her katana’s blade is a deep red, with the occasional drop of blood hitting the floor beneath her. Luna noted that unlike before, there was no aura around the weapon. All around her were the bodies of the men who had been in the room before, each one of them grasping a pistol. Sakura lazily swings her weapon up, licking the excess vitae from her blade.
“A little longer than two minutes but...eh. I got to have fun. I forgive ya. Let’s go get what we came for huh?” Sakura smirks, kicking herself off of the table and calmly stepping over the bodies.
Luna avoids the downed men entirely, sauntering onstage and leaping down into the ballroom proper. She joins up with Sakura as they start to head upstairs. The second floor had a few parlor games, most notably pool and darts. However, the boards were all empty, and the pool tables were devoid of their cues. Luna tilts a brow as she looks over the lifeless jazz club. Something felt wrong here.
“Wait...the lights were off for like, two minutes. Shouldn’t Scar have like, come out and investigated or something? This feels weird.”
Sakura frowns. “Probably. He can be very focused on his work, but the gunfire should’ve caught his attention.”
Sakura leads Luna to a series of small offices just out of sight of the pool tables. She quiets herself as she makes her way to the one marked ‘Head Office’ in golden letters. Luna follows suit, though she gives the assassin a few feet of space. Sakura kicks open the wooden door, raising her sword in preparation to use it, only to relax it a second later.
“He’s not here…?” The vampire says perplexingly.
Luna sticks her head in the door. The office is kept quite tidy, with a large desk sitting in the middle of the room. A few classy decorations are found sporadically throughout the room, including a small globe, an articulate hourglass, and lastly, a vase full of fresh roses. The papers on the desk are very neatly stacked to either side of a glass-panel computer. A picture of Scar sits on the corner, with him grinning slyly, with his hand hanging in the air as if he had it draped over someone, but nobody appeared to be there.
Luna gulps. “Then...where is he? Are we sure he was here tonight?”
Sakura scratches her head. “Uh...yeah. I mean, he spends a ton of time here as far as I could tell. If not here, then where the hell else would he be?”
Luna ponders internally. If he was supposed to be here but didn’t react to the gunfire, it likely meant he didn’t hear it. Either there was a basement with very thick walls, or he could have been on the roof. Just before the werewolf speaks, the sound of something heavy thumps down somewhere above them. She turns to look at Sakura, who seems to not heard the noise. Luna leans back out of the door quickly, grabbing Sakura by the shoulder and urging her out of the room.
“Upstairs.” Luna barks out quickly.
“What?”
Luna leans back in the door for a moment. “The reason why he didn’t hear you is because he was upstairs the whole time. Miguel’s been alone with him this entire time.”
Sakura stiffens up. “Well shit.”
Luna darts out of the room followed very closely behind by Sakura, who manages to pass her in getting to the stairs to the roof. The vampire kicks the door off of the hinges as she rockets up the stairs, leaping over several stairs at a time to reach the top. Luna’s did her best to hurry, but her unusual feet and the narrow stairs didn’t make for a speedy ascension.
Sakura flings open the door to the roof just in time to see Miguel strung up by Scar’s tentacles, the man hissing as he tries to hold himself together. Luna barges past Sakura to see the same sight, the werewolf’s ire raising immediately.
“Catch him.” Sakura whispers out of the side of her mouth, stepping forward and unsheathing her blade. She swings the Akai Blade in an upward motion, creating a nearly invisible wave of energy that slices the tentacles clean in two. Just as Scar turns to look at Sakura, she fires off a vicious blast of wind that sends Scar rocketing off his feet, rolling a few times over himself. The tentacles lose their grip on Miguel entirely, who starts to fall towards the ground. Luna sprints forward and leaps just in time to catch him in her outstretched arms, hitting the ground on her side and sliding on the frozen concrete a few feet.
The werewolf leans up to look over Miguel’s battered body, holding him close. Her eyes start to water as she looks over the various bruises on him, scarcely able to control her breathing. Miguel winces as he’s moved, moving his right arm over to grab at his mechanical one. His voice is sympathetic but still pained.
“Shh-shh-shh. I’ve taken lumps worse than these. I’ll be okay.”
“Mr. Morales I...I’m sorry, I didn’t know he was-”
“Don’t be sorry kid. Just get him. Make him…” Miguel bites his lip as he pushes himself into a sitting position. “...make him pay. For me.”
Luna nods, shaking the small tears forming in her eyes. She stands up and balls her fists, ready to fight. Luna starts to step away from Miguel, but Sakura calls out sharply.
“Stay there. Guard him. I’ll handle Scar.”
Luna halts her advance and growls at the friendly vampire. “What? Why? You need my help!”
Sakura shakes her head. “If he gets to Miguel again, he’ll take him hostage and kill him. Or worse. Just...just stay there.”
“Now, what makes you think I’m the bad guy? The way I see it, you guys stormed a perfectly reputable establishment and started pointing guns.” Scar calls out sarcastically, picking himself up from the ground. He faces Sakura, brushing off his clothing from any debris the sudden tumble may have given him.
“I have a job to do.” Scar says as-matter-of-factly. “Nothing more, nothing less. I run this wing of the family out here. And things were going fine. Just fine. Until some psychopath started blowing up shipments.”
Sakura spins her sword into a fighting position, with both hands grasping the hilt and holding the blade in front of herself. “And what part of that involves your gross-ass eating habits hmm? Or the people you mulch through to power you and your friends messed up little gang? The completely unnecessary murders you and your boys pull off every few months?”
Scar crosses his arms over his chest, with one of his tentacles waving accusingly over his head. “Do my ears deceive me? Is the assassin scolding me on the rights and wrongs of running a criminal organization? Your capacity for hypocrisy truly knows no bounds, Sakura Armada.”
Sakura’s eyes widen in surprise. “How’d you find out about-”
“When you are as long-lived as I am, you hear things, and so many of us just love to gossip.” Scar grins in response.
He continues a moment later. “Oh yes, dear Sakura, I did do my research. Once apart of the illustrious Armada business empire that took a tumble back around the turn of the last century. There was once nothing that the Armada didn’t have a finger in. But your father made a few poor bets and ended up owing too much to the wrong people. And where did that leave poor little Sakura when her father’s fortunes went up in flames?”
Sakura stands a little more resolutely in the face of the truth, simply staring disapprovingly at Scar.
“Parentless...and very soon after that...homeless. Then you disappeared without a trace. Only to reappea
r ten years later and doing assassin work for hire. From what I used to hear, you were rather good at it, weren’t you?”
Sakura shrugs towards him coldly. “It’s the best way to advertise.”
“It truly is, isn’t it?” Scar says. “But perhaps, not good enough. One double cross later left you face down in a ditch with a hole for a chest. Homeless and friendless yet again.”
Sakura rolls her eyes. “Is there a point to your history lesson here?”
“Yes.” Scar hisses. “It’s to help your...soon to be departed friends here to understand the kind of hypocritical scoundrel they should have left to die. Bleeding out in the snow, just as lost and hopeless as she’s ever been.”
Sakura snorts in his general direction. “I won’t pretend like I’m some goodie-two-shoes. But I don’t do what you do asshole. I did what I did to survive. You do it for fun, just like your crazy ass firebug.”
Scar snickers at that, holding a hand over his stomach. “Oh! Yes. I have to admit, ever since I collared the law, I've been getting bored. No need to get my hands dirty when hardly anybody is around to oppose you. But I do have you all to thank for reminding me how exhilarating it feels. Ms. White was quite right. I like this.”
Sakura passes a glance over towards the onlooking Luna and Miguel before looking back towards Scar, frowning. Her sword straightens as her grip tightens. “Let’s see how fun it is when I put a second scar on your face.”
Scar returns her taunt with a scowl, the man rolling his shoulders as he prepares to command his tentacles. He fires two of the slick black appendages at Sakura, threatening to run her through the middle. Sakura parries the both with her sword, easily knocking them aside. She takes a step forward, throwing out another strong tunnel of wind at Scar. He counters by collapsing three of his tentacles together and flaying them out to make a triangular block of ooze. The geometric nature of the shield splits the wind harmlessly, venting it off to the sides.
Sakura winces as she sees this and points her wind tunnel down, propelling herself into the air. Scar lowers his shield and looks around for a moment, unable to find his adversary. Using this misdirection to her advantage, Sakura throws another blast of air behind herself, shooting downward at an angle. Just as Scar spots her, she swings her Akai blade, firing off another wave of sharp energy. The male vampire leaps to the side as the projected energy hits the roof, cutting through it and cleanly slicing through the concrete.
Sakura gives chase, sprinting after Scar and catching up to him fairly quickly. The male vampire summons his tentacles to throw towards Sakura, one after another in a barrage shadowy limbs. Moving her blade faster than Luna had ever seen, Sakura cuts each oncoming appendage, leaving a trail of them in her wake. Before long, Scar’s shadow pool nearly disappeared underneath his feet, leaving him without his primary defense. Sensing an opportunity, Sakura redoubles her sprinting, raising her blade in preparation for the finishing blow. Just as she charges in, her sword mere centimeters from piercing Scar’s throat, Sakura stops mid-stride. It alarms her even, as she struggles to move just that extra inch forward. She looks behind herself to see what the holdup was and gasps in shock.
Each one of the tentacles she’d cut down on her way to him had reformed away from him, planting themselves to the ground like a tree. In just that quick motion, the tree’s branches had reached out to her, just barely grasping Sakura by the ankle and her elbows, holding her blade still. Scar smiles at her plight, Sakura struggling to break free of the hold.
“Such murderous intent in your eyes. It’s adorable really.”
With a small wave from Scar, the tentacles start to retract, pulling her back towards the rooted tree of shadow. Sakura’s boots drag along the ground hard enough to leave curls of leather behind as she tries to maintain her position. As Sakura draws closer, more tentacles reach forward to grip her, grabbing her by the torso and the neck, making it all the harder to stay on the ground. In a few seconds, Sakura is drug into the shadowy appendages, growling and thrashing the whole way in. Luna shudders profusely.
The tree then falls on it’s side and stretches outward to meet Scar’s small shadow pool, connecting it’s reddish black mass back to it. The shadowy singular shadow appendage rearranges itself, forcing Sakura to the end of it while she writhes within it, fighting the process the whole way through. Her sword pokes out for a mere second before being consumed once more. Scar smirks as he raises the tentacle high into the air, carrying Sakura within it with ease. The appendage then begins to slam itself into the ground, hard enough to both damage the roof and elicit pained responses from Luna. Every other slam, the werewolf heard the telltale snaps of bones being broken.
On around the dozenth slam, the bulbous tip of the shadow arm begins to rupture. Sakura’s red blade forces its way out of the cocoon and glows with a black aura. She swings the blade at the tentacle holding her, a massive wave of black energy slamming into it, which then explodes messily. Sakura’s bodily sent flying as she knocked herself away, the brightness of the blast forcing Scar to cover his eyes. Sakura lands in a bloodied heap, her sword embedding itself in the roof. She’s on her hands and knees, convulsing as she steadies herself through the pain. The young vampire is covered in abrasions and bruises from head to toe, as well as a completely busted lip and nose. The Akai blade soon loses all of its color, reverting back to a dull silver and losing its powerful aura.
Scar cackles as soon as he sees the state of Sakura, drawing the blasted tentacle back into the pool at his feet. He turns towards Luna, who nearly jumps in surprise. The werewolf gulps as she maintains her position in front of Miguel. The vampire meticulously runs his fingers over one another.
“I was wrong about her. She was very entertaining indeed, but that leaves me with the most boring of the three now, doesn’t it?”
Luna growls at Scar, her ears arcing forward and her tail going stiff out behind her.
“Don’t underestimate me!”
“You’ll have to set the bar someplace other than the ground for that to happen.” Scar taunts, crossing his arms over one another. “If you were actually a fighter, you’d have just leaped on me, yet you hesitated. Why?”
Scar takes a few steps towards her, his tentacles hovering from the pool at his feet but never obstructing his view. Luna gulps as she reconsiders. She supposed she could have jumped in at some point during that fight but...Sakura was right. What if he sent a tentacle over here? He could have easily killed Miguel.
“Was she not your friend? Don’t you care about her? You could have saved her you know. This is your fault.” Scar says, barely able to contain the mockery in his voice.
“Of course I care about her!" Luna says, a throaty growl rising from her throat. "She’s my friend, and she’s trying to do the right thing asshole!”
Scar acts fauxly wounded, draping an arm over his head. “Oh, my feelings! You have wounded me so! Your words have forced me to see the error in my ways.”
Scar commands two tentacles outwards, one grabbing his fedora and the other slithering towards an out of the way corner. Once the first appendage returns, he places his fedora back on his head and uncurls glasses from his pocket and sliding them back on his face.
“As if. I don’t know why you are this far in the city, but I gave you a chance to run along as well. At this point, it’s self-defense really.”
Luna hesitates to move any closer towards Scar, her eyes occasionally dipping back to Miguel’s form. Since he had been down, the human had pulled himself a few inches to the edge of the wall to prop himself up better. Seeing all of this, he reaches out with one of his feet and prods the werewolf in the leg. Luna turns to face him.
“Don’t you worry about me kid. Like I said. You get him. And you make him pay.”
Luna nods slowly and turns back towards Scar, who merely waits with his hands in his pockets. Finding her courage, the werewolf charges Scar directly, her claws and fangs glistening in the moonlight. She slashes at his chest, her claws extended a
s far as they could go. The attack hit nothing, as Scar easily sidesteps it. His tentacles slink into the pool entirely. Luna swings at him several more times, but each one is met with a bored expression and a passionless evasion. After several more tries, Scar’s hand shoots out, grabbing Luna’s own and halting it from hitting him.
“You...actually don’t know how to fight, do you? I didn’t know that the guard dog Morales had gone and got himself was a mere puppy. That’s cute. Useless, but cute.”
Luna growls as she rips her hand back from Scar’s own, her strength overpowering his own. “Don’t toy with me!”
Scar cackles. “Oh-ho-ho..but that would mean you’d need to be fun first.”
Luna flexes her fingers back and forth checking them for any injuries. Finding none, she narrows her glare at Scar’s smug expression.
“Why?” Luna says, sheathing her claws back into her fingers. “Why are you doing this? All these terrible things you’ve done...doesn’t it bother you?”
Scar shrugs nonchalantly. “Because I’m the bad guy. Because I am always the bad guy. So screw it. I'll be the bad guy. Makes no difference to me. ”
Scar slinks a little closer and pushes a finger up into the bridge of his glasses, adjusting them. "What I did to Mr. Morales I’d do again, and as many times as I had to to get the results I wanted. And no speech from any self-righteous wolf is going to change my mind.”
Ravenport: Luna's Awakening Page 23