The Kidnappings Part 28

    Red the raptor and Scar Scales both sat on the side of the main mast, playing a game of walk the plank with a deck of pirate cards.

    “Really, Red?!” growled Scar Scales angrily slamming his hand on wooden mast. How is it you always beat me with the King of Rum!”

    Red chuckled. “Just lucky, I guess…”

    “Lucky my scars!” cried Scar Scales handing over a coin.

    “Wanna play again?” asked Red shuffling the deck with his claws.

    “Do I bloody look like I want to play again?” snarled Scar Scales.

    “Pipe down ‘scar head’,” said Red rolling his eyes. “There’s no need to be sore about it. Why don’t we have a bottle of. . .” Scar Scales looked on curiously, as Red’s face ran pale with fright gazing over his shoulder.

    “What is it, Red?” asked Scar Scales looking over his shoulder.

    “I could have sworn I saw someone on the end of the sail,” said Red, squinting his eyes.

    Scar Scales laughed in disbelief. “That be ridiculous! No one’s up here except you and me, mate.”

    “I’m tellin’ yah, I saw someone!” said Red resting his hand on his sword. Seeing there was no sign of deception in his eyes, Scar Scales hopped to his feet squinting at the foggy end of the sail. Scar Scales became slack jawed as the silhouette of a person became visible through the fog.

    Scar Scales quickly grabbed his sword and gritted his teeth. “Arr, who goes there?” The dark figure in the fog continued staring on making no movement. “I’m warnin’ ye! Step out and make yerself known or I’ll make sure ye never have to worry about having a headache again, sez I!” Scar Scales slowly began to approach the figure with his sword drawn. As he neared him, he was able to make out more details. It was Bozo, the hippo clown mascot of Bozo’s Burgers! He was dressed in his trademark red and white polka dot outfit. On his head was a small flowered hat covering frizzy rainbow colored hair. A measuring stick was in his hand as he gazed blankly at Scar Scales. “What in blazes is this?”

    “Sorry,” replied the clown in a high-pitched voice. “Only children under four feet are allowed to play in the ball pit.” Scar Scales prepared to swing his sword as Bozo the clown raised his large metallic measuring stick.

     ********

    Axl shook his head in disbelief as Brutus lifted four barrels of gunpowder with Iggy sitting on top. The surrounding pirates applauded while the ones who had lost a bet groaned.

    “Told yah, my buddy Brutus could do it!” gloated Iggy with pride. “Anyone wanna try for five barrels?”

    “Iggy!” scolded Axl as Brutus set down the barrels. “Do you really want to break your ‘buddy’s’ back?”

    “Oh c’mon, Axl!” scoffed Iggy hopping off the barrels. “Brutus isn’t gonna break his back, ain’t that right Brutus?”

    Brutus shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll stop at five, Axl. I promise.” The pirates again applauded as Cutlass and Hacks stacked another barrel on top of the four Brutus had just lifted. Iggy hopped on top of the fifth barrel and gave Brutus a thumb up. Brutus cracked his knuckles before put his large arms clasped around the barrels. Grunting from the heavy weight he slowly began to raise them in the air. Once he had them over his shoulders the pirates began to applaud once again at Brutus’s impressive display of strength.

    “It told you!” gloated Iggy. “I told…” The pirates gasped as Scar Scales fell from the top sail onto Iggy. Brutus abruptly lost his balance as he fell backwards with the barrels toppling over his body. Axl looked up hearing another man falling from above. Red the raptor also fell from the top sail screaming in fear as he painfully toppling over the scaly bodies of other pirates. Brutus groaned as the pirates attempted to dig him out from the stack of barrels. Axl dashed over to where Iggy and Scar Scales had fallen. Axl found Iggy unconscious while Scar Scales laid next to him dazed. Axl put his hand on Scar Scales shoulder attempting to knock him out of his stupor.

    “Are you ok? What happened to you?”

    “I be too tall for the ball pit,” dizzily mumbled Scar Scales as his head collapsed back onto the floor.

    “Look! Up there!” shouted Gristles. Axl glanced upwards to see a shadowy figure observing them. To everyone’s astonishment, the figure leaped down from the sail onto the deck below causing all of the startled pirates to draw their weapons.

    “Bozo?” exclaimed Axl observing the person’s likeness of the fast food restaurant. Another scream was heard as Flint was thrown from the top of the poop deck. A loud growl sounded from the top deck.

    “We’re under attack!” Axl heard Cutlass shout behind the upper deck railing. Cutlass drew his sword as he battled what appeared to be a monstrously sized hamburger with arms and legs. Large white eyes bulged from what he could only guess was the top bun. Axl froze there perplexed from the disturbing bizarre sight. Suddenly, it dawned on Axl where he had seen such a figure before. It was Hammy the Hamburger! One of the other mascots of Bozo’s Burgers. Hammy was a giant sized walking, talking hamburger often seen in commercial’s alongside Bozo. Of course in the commercials it was always just a person in a bulky costume playing the part of Hammy. This Hammy, however, was much larger than the one commonly seen in the commercials and unlike the cute bubbly personality of the on screen character, it carried a demeanor which undoubtedly carried sinister intent. Its large eyes possessed the gaze of a psychotic madman while a low rumble came from the two pieces of hamburger meat which released a strong greasy smell mixed with onions and pickles. Like the mascot, the arms and hands were wire thin, made up of large French fries. The brown legs and feet had the appearance of being flesh, only faintly resembling the tight spandex worn by the commercial’s actors. One detail which set this life like version of Hammy from the character was a small black pirate hat on its head reminding him of the large painted image of pirate themed Hammy on the poop deck. At this realization, Axl’s attention turned directly toward the ball pit cut out image of Bozo only to see a white metal outline circling around where he had previously appeared. It was as if Bozo had directly walked out of the standup metal image, morphing into a real living creature. He glanced back over at Bozo to see him battling pirates with what appeared to be the measuring stick from the ball pit. Despite the Bozo creature being outnumbered, Axl noticed the pirates’ attempts to subdue the creature to be ineffective with their swords and gunfire appearing to merely ricochet on contact. After leaving several pirates wounded on the deck, the large muscle bound pirate, Gristles, released a loud growl, raising his large arms before charging toward the Bozo creature. Gristles launched his large fist toward the hamburger clown only to have Bozo catch it with his left hand. To Axl’s astonishment, Gristles cried in pain as the significantly smaller hand of Bozo squeezed and twisted the dinosaur’s hulking arm. “Grahh!”

    Bozo scowled at Gristles, dropping his measuring stick to the ground. He then proceeded to raise his right hand, and shake a scolding finger in front of the spinosaurus’s eye. Bozo’s right fist slammed into the face of Gristles launching him into the air. Suddenly, Bozo’s head shot over in Axl’s direction, driving him to begin nervously stepping away. Bozo’s arm reached down in a mechanical fashion, once again grabbing the measuring stick.

    Axl dashed out of the way, causing the measuring stick’s edge to dig into the nearby wood of the ship’s cabin. Axl grabbed a nearby cutlass on the ground, but before even having an opportunity to strike, Bozo had already freed the stick from the wood and was swinging it full force into his direction. Axl grunted while staggering back from the strike. Bozo swung the stick once again, only this time knocking Axl’s sword out of his hands. Just as Bozo prepared to strike a killing blow to Axl, Aldo, leaped in front of him, blocking Bozo’s strikes with his bladed arm.

    “Take this ye scurvy muttonhead clown!” snarled Aldo. Axl stood back with his back against the cabin wall, observing Aldo’s swordsmanship. In the mist of this battle, Axl flashed back to the first time he ever wielded a sword. It happened during his transformation upon first having contact with Jagged, his guitar. During his encounter with the rat sorcerer, his movements felt so fluid and natural, as though he had been sparring his entire life. Now that he was away from his guitar, swordsmanship had once again become foreign to him. He felt ashamed for feeling so helpless during this battle, but without Jagged he knew he would be mincemeat were he to jump into the fray. A green crocodile who went by the name of “Skater Blade” whizzed toward Bozo on roller blades from behind. He wore black pants and hockey pads on his lower body while wearing a helmet and right spiked shoulder pad. Axl did not know much about him apart from the brief mention of him being a former “hockey player” gone pirate. His hockey stick had more of the appearance of being a black scythe rather than sporting equipment. With one swift swing, Skater Blade managed to strike Bozo directly in the head.

    “He shoots! He scores!” taunted Skater Blade.

    Bozo growled, as his attention was diverted to roller blading crocodile. Aldo charged toward Bozo thrusting his sword into the clown’s body. Axl then grabbed a nearby sword and joined Aldo and Skater Blade in releasing an onslaught of strikes against Bozo, with their blade’s making contact multiple times. To the reptiles’ surprise, their weapons proved to be useless with them merely making a clinging sound on contact.

    “The darn things made out of some kind of metal!” cried Skater Blade.

    “This be futile, sez I!” fretted Aldo.

    The roar of the burger again sounded from the top deck. “Look out below!” shouted a voice from the stern. The cracking of wood pierced the air as the mizzen mast began to tilt in their direction.

    “Blimey!” cried Aldo. “We best move!”

    Axl joined Aldo and Skater Blade in clearing the path of the collapsing mizzenmast. Bozo, however, failed to clear away, and was crushed under the large wooden pole’s force. The monstrous burger, hobbled it’s way off the poop deck, breaking through the upper wooden railing. As it leaped down, Axl gained view of Captain Komodo from behind the railing, aiming what appeared to be a large blunderbuss weapon. He fired several more shots with the burger not even so much as giving a flinch.

    “This is bad,” said Hacks from behind. “This is very bad.” The reptiles watched as Slink the skink, swung from a rope with a sword in hand toward the burger only to be whacked by the large steel fries of Hammy.

    They heard him cry in pain as he was launched off the deck. “Grahh!”

    “We must do something!” said Aldo. “We can’t just stand here and let that creature tear this ship apart!”

    The reptiles looked on as Aurous and Gristles threw small explosives in the burger’s direction. Like Slink, the burger swiped it’s arms against them, knocking the wind from the two reptilian pirates.

    At this sight, Hacks scoffed. “Yeah, I don’t really care to join my mates in having a concussion, if yeh don’t mind!”

    “Do we have any stronger explosives?” queried Axl.

    “Aye!” replied Aldo with a nod. “But I fear this ship would not be able to withstand a blast of that intensity!”

    “Well, we’re running out of options,” said Skater Blade. “Pretty soon, there won’t be a ship left to worry about.”

    Axl squinted his eyes, as the lone figure of Bozo crawled on top of Hammy. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Once directly centered on Hammy, Bozo released a loud deafening roar, while beating his chubby chest. Hammy began to bounce in their direction, causing the ship to shake.

    “How does that thing get around on those two scrawny legs?” shouted Skater Blade with a perplexed tone.

    Axl watched as Hammy made another quaking leap, bringing him closer to where they were standing. “I don’t know, but if it gets any closer, we’re screwed!”

    Axl felt Hacks angrily shove him from behind. “Aren’t yeh supposed to be special or something, rock star?! Why can’t you stop em’!?”

    Axl gritted his teeth as he gazed scornfully into the large burger’s eyes. He felt infuriated by Hack’s critical comment, but not at Hack’s himself. He did not like the feeling of being helpless or out of control. He had felt himself grow so much during his time with the band, and right here and now, that was all about to be crushed by a couple of fast food mascots. Axl raised his cutlass threateningly in Hammy’s direction.

    “Axl, no!” pled Aldo as he observed Axl’s motions.

    Without saying another word, Axl charged in the direction of Hammy, with a sword and explosive in his hands. After lighting the explosive, he threw it inside of Hammy’s double patty mouth. After hearing a low rumble, Hammy began coughing out smoke. Axl prepared to launch another explosive, but felt the impact of Hammy’s steel fry arms leaving him air born. “Augh!” In a matter of seconds, he felt his body splash into the ocean.

    ******************

    Axl drifted helplessly through the dark ocean water, too stunned to move or swim. He felt as though he had been just run over by a truck. A thousand images began to flash through his head. Images of his past, like his last concert at the festival, or him walking along the beach with Selena. He could briefly see Iggy laughing hysterically after accidently squirting ketchup all over Brutus at Louie’s Diner along with Rolf losing his cool at a fan after a show while Lonnie attempted to calm him down. The images took a darker turn as he relived having the nightmarish wave of water washing him away from Selena while he disappeared into a dark abyss. Now, there was nothing. No sound, no images, no sense of time. Until he saw the light! At first it was faint, like a star twinkling in the distance. The light continued to grow bringing new life to Axl. He started to swim toward it. It was then that he realized what the light was. The black jagged guitar from the temple of Forbidden Island! Somehow, fire managed to blaze over it despite it being completely submerged in water while causing no harm to the instrument. Axl suddenly felt his aquatic lizard instincts kick in as he paddled his feet and swished his tail, to approach the instrument with his arms outstretched. As he grabbed the neck, he felt a jolt of energy surge through his body. His yellow eyes flamed a matching red to the fire of the guitar.  Electrical charges exploded from him, illuminating his surroundings with a strobe like flash. He then felt himself launch out of the water like a rocket flying through the air as high as the ship’s top sail. Axl began playing an unknown riff eventually driving him to zoom down toward the ship.

    *******

    Brutus who had now recovered from having been buried by barrels was fighting Hammy wielding a sledgehammer with each hand. “Die you walking heart disease!” growled Brutus.

    Axl landed on the ship with a loud thud. The ship shook from the impact, causing Brutus to stagger.

    “Axl?” said Brutus, perplexed by Axl’s new appearance.

     Axl flicked his tongue as he and the giant burger made eye contact. Bozo glared from the top of Hammy, with the measuring stick resting over his shoulder “Time to get charbroiled!” shouted Axl. He unloaded a long guitar shred, unleashing what appeared to be a large bolt of lightning, from the neck of his guitar. The burger roared in pain as it staggered back with Bozo being flung from the side of the ship. Axl continued to shred as fast as his hands would let him, while the bolt of lightning continued to intensify. Struggling through the attack, Hammy continued to slowly step toward him.

     Brutus spectated from the side, amazed by the show of force.

     As he continued to shred, Axl could feel the force of the air blowing onto him as the large arms swung back and forth, in their attempts to again smash him. His mind managed to remain on his guitar shredding, while he struggled to ignore the threatening creature towering over him. Axl was nearly in reach when he saw the two white round eyes, beginning to melt. Eventually, flames exploded from them, eventually spreading to the rest of the body.

    “She’s gonna blow!” shouted Brutus through his cuffed hands.

    Hammy, released one last monstrous shriek before exploding into a cloud of dust particles.

    Axl was knocked to the ground from the explosion. Although he painfully landed on his back, he tightly gripped his claws around the neck and body. Not gonna lose you again, Jagged!

    Brutus who had also been knocked to the ground on impact, crawled over to Axl, helping him to sit up.

    “What the heck was that!” chortled Brutus. “That was amazing!”

    All the pirates who were not too wounded to move began to emerge from their hiding places and surround him. Aldo appeared from the side, clapping his hand against his blade.

    “What did I tell ye?! Destiny has brought Axl among us to usher in the new era of piracy!” Hacks joined in the applause quickly followed by the rest of the crew.

    Komodo was helped to the lower deck by Cutlass. Although he walked with a slight limp, he appeared to still be in relatively good condition. “I am alright, Cutlass. Just check on the rest of the crew.”

     Cutlass nodded his head, before exchanging an acknowledging glance with Axl.

    Axl continued to sit on the floor as Komodo limped toward him. “Congratulations, Mr. Reigns!” said Komodo smiling wearily still carrying his blunderbuss. “It would appear to me you’ve finally gained the favor of the crew!” The crew began chanting Axl’s name. “Axl! Axl! Axl!” Axl could not help himself from beaming with pride as he returned the metal horns to the crew. Brutus helped Iggy up from the pile of broken barrels. “What did I miss?” asked Iggy groaning with his hand to his back.

    “Everything,” muttered Brutus, rolling his eyes.
      As Iggy began sniffing the air a very perplexed expression formed on his face. "Why does this place smell like onions, now?"

     With the help of Aldo, Scar Scales staggered to his feet, cradling his left shoulder. “On days like this, methinks I be getting’ to old fer this ‘scar business.’”

     “Behind you, Axl!” shouted Cutlass.

       Axl flung his guitar in time to block the measuring stick of Bozo. The clown’s face was now disfigured appearing to have melted into liquid metal.

    “Too tall for the ball piiittt!” rasped the creature’s voice.

    “I have had quite enough of clowns on this adventure, thank you!” growled Axl, before slicing his guitar completely through his body. The creature released one last gurgling growl before transforming into a puddle of liquid on the ground.

    The pirates once again erupted into applause and cheers.

    *****

    Meanwhile in the dark recesses of Scornfious’s lair, the rat sat on the floor in a meditative state. He released a weary sigh drooping his arms, before collapsing face first on the floor. A couple of concerned guards quickly rushed over to his assistance.

    “My Lord?” called out one of the guards. Scornfious laid on his back unresponsive gazing into space toward the ceiling. Although acknowledgement to the guard’s concerns was never made, three words he did manage to utter from his mouth.

    “Darn you, Axl. . .”



llustrations by Bluepisces97

  Thanks for reading!


 
Nightriders: The Kidnappings Part 29

 

Nightriders: The Kidnappings Part 1