Long Journey || ATEEZ

Rise For Your Downfall

There was a resounding BOOM as The Catastrophe and her crew finally found what they had been looking for – the ATINY – and let senseless violence take over. Almost seconds later, San and Shinoko surfaced from the water and sprinted over to the rest of ATEEZ, faces flushed and eyes despaired.

"It didn't work!" Shinoko wailed as she reached the group.

"Evidently," Hongjoong commented as he watched purple Magik circles form around his ship. Hopefully Yeosang had taught Terry well in the short time he'd been given. The captain had nothing left to do but hope. "Let's hurry up."

Like they could hurry up searching for something fruitless; they had no idea what they were looking for, and the past ten minutes had yielded nothing. But the overwhelming pressure of what seemed to be Eterna's presence had seemed to lessen in the face of Cezanne and her posse, and so Hongjoong began to hope. And plan.

"We should all split up. Cover more ground, that way," Hongjoong said. He pointed to the pairs that had naturally found each other. "Yunho and Mingi, you stay together – Jongho and Yeosang, you're a team, and San, Wooyoung and Shinoko, you're together. Seonghwa, you're with me."

The pirates gave their captain brief nods and scattered, jumping over the remains of old houses and temples, sprinting across what seemed to have been a market square and ducking under pillars long since fallen. Hongjoong turned to Cezanne's ship meanwhile, searching with sharp eyes.

"We're really going to have to hurry up," the captain said to his first mate. "Look." Hongjoong pointed at a something speeding over the water at unholy speeds. "Cezanne and her bitch are on their way."

Seonghwa nodded.

"And we'll be there to welcome them," the first mate said.

"Of course," Hongjoong nodded. "Anything to buy my crew some time."

The captain and first mate headed off in the direction of the coast, ready to meet Cezanne and sever their intertwined fates.

It didn't take long for Cezanne and Zinnia to speed over the water. It seemed Zinnia was a talented fairy, and had used some kind of Magik to boost her flying speed.

"Take out Zinnia as fast as you can," Hongjoong muttered to Seonghwa as the two began to make their way towards the pair as they reached land. "Those two are extremely hard to combat at the same time – as you know."

Seonghwa nodded, his usually soft features falling behind that cruel mask of cold judgement as it so often did when he went into battle. His hand twitched by his side, itching to reach for his gun or rifle, but he knew he had to be smarter in this battle. Zinnia was no normal opponent. She was well-trained and tidy in her fights, skilfully ending her opponent's life in moments. And so, of course, Seonghwa had to be faster – and more brutal.

Which was precisely what the first mate of the ATINY excelled at.

Seonghwa lunged forwards at a speed neither pirate of The Catastrophe had ever seen before when they were close enough. Zinnia had almost no time to react, barely dodging Seonghwa's fist and blocking his blast of Dark Energy with a swipe of Magik of her own. But the resulting force was so powerful that the fairy was blasted backwards. It was all Seonghwa and Hongjoong needed.

Cezanne, offended to the highest level, turned with her sword raised and bloodlust in her eyes. But she felt the hairs prick up on her back and battle instinct settle in. She turned in one swift movement and for the better; her sword barely met Hongjoong's as they scraped together like some death screech, and she felt herself stepping back at the other captain's brute strength.