Excursion 9: Sharks on the Dance Floor

A spry man, about five nine was patrolling the perimeter of the warehouse. He looked to the fence and noticed nothing. The most out of place thing he saw was a scraggly bush, about two meters in length. Nothing felt off to him, so he returned to his post inside the warehouse.

What he didn't know was that that bush was made with a tight, steel wool mesh, with leaves attached to each of its holes. It was a design made by Fyky himself.

The three made their move, running behind the man, who was actually Gar, an experienced mercenary, and as the door to the warehouse closed, the three broke through the opening.

Doc immediately chanted, "Death's Door!" And shut down one of Gar's legs. Sim responded by sending in a shiver of sharks, their fins moving through the ground, but as they were about to bite and chew on Doc, Fyky unveiled his new technique, Piano String Matrix. He created a net-like structure made out of piano strings, and propelled it forward, slicing the sharks into cubes as it moved towards Din. The plan was now in motion.

Din chased Fyky into another part of the warehouse, Doc was battling Gar, and Black Hawk moved past, moving immediately to search for Weaponsmith.

Fyky led Din into a large room with a square tile grid pattern spanning the ground. Din was an interesting looking man, he had a five-o'clock shadow on the sides of his jaw, but a scraggly patch of beard dominating his chin. He smelt of cigarettes and fish, and wore a black beanie over his head, with a green apron adorning his black sweater. His hands were gloved as well.

Fyky was nervous about challenging him, because not only did he resemble someone with immense experience, he had a fearsome reputation amongst other members of the Green Gang. But soon, rather than nervousness, he felt excitement surging through him.

Din immediately sent five sharks towards Fyky. But Fyky unleashed a new technique, Cable Slicer, where he detached the tip of his index finger, and made a steel cable connecting it back to his hand, extending it a good distance, and he used it as a whip to slice the sharks in half.

"Interesting technique you got there kid," Din said in praise, "but can you handle this?" And he unleashed 10 pirhanas swimming through the floor, occasionally jumping out of the water to take bites.

Fyky then uses another technique he developed, Gossamer Space, where he crafted spider silk onto the corner of the room, he then lodged himself onto the gossamer he made, where he was just out of reach of the piranhas, then he unleashed his Cable Slicer, slicing the pirhanas in half.

"C'mon is that all you got?" Taunted Fyky, "now let me show you some real power!"

He formed his hand into a finger pistol, and the tip of his index finger became ablaze. Then he called out, "release!" And a bolt of flame flew at Din at the other side of the room.

Din then made a turtle pop out of the water, it's shell intercepting the flame. Fortunately, only the shell cracked, but this shocked Din, who thought of Fyky as a weakling.

"Hmm I'm a bit impressed, but if that's all… Good luck!" Then Din released a giant squid the size of a miniature kraken. It's tentacles began frantically moving throughout, slamming the gossamer and destroying it.

Fyky then began falling to the ground, but Din set up another trap, surrounding the floor with jellyfish. All of a sudden, the floor wasn't safe at all, and Fyky created another gossamer to keep him stuck to the wall.

Fyky realized this wouldn't be enough. He now needed to find a way to get rid of the kraken. He thought of a strategy that hadn't been tested. The thought of applying it excites him so much, and with his tingling hands, he detached his whole hand, connected to the arm via steel cable once more, and he launched it at the top of the kraken.

He then unleashed the most destructive of his new techniques, Catgut Pendulum, where he once again extended his fingertips, all of them, up to the size he wanted, and lights those strings on fire. He then swings them back and forth on an arc, slicing anyone caught in the pendulum path.

Using the technique on the kraken allowed him to slice it into many pieces. "What's next?" Fyky said with a vexed look on his face, as he stood atop what remained of the kraken.

"Oh you'll see," then from the ground, all of the jellyfish gathered and jumped from the floor towards Fyky.

Fyky then points his palm towards the mound of jellyfish hurdling towards him and shoots a beam of fire from it. The jellyfish are reduced to ash.

"Well, I guess that's all you can—"

Fyky is interrupted when several giant, technicolor eels bite onto his sides.

"Bet you didn't see that coming," said Din. Capitalizing on this moment of distraction. Din pulled out a knife and started moving incredibly fast, using a manta ray skipping on the floor's surface.

Fyky quickly steeled himself, realizing the true beauty of these battles. The constant one-upsmanship, the diversity of strategy, he loved it all. He threw on a devious smile, and set up a Piano String Matrix. Din jumped off the mantaray as soon as he began approaching the deadly, string structure.

Din jumped onto the kraken's carcass and tried slashing Fyky, but he dodged it, just barely. Then Fyky ignites his fist, preparing to unleash a melee technique, Flare Fist, where Fyky sets his fist on fire to cause burns with his punches as well.

Fyky lands his Flare Fist right on Din's abdomen. Din felt the heat surging throughout his body. Then Fyky punched him once more with his other hand launching Din onto the wall.

Din barely conscious decides to unleash his last ditch trick. From the back of the room, he summons the front half of a giant blue whale, destroying most of the room. The whale falls down on Fyky. Fyky starts thinking, how will I escape? The whale is too big, could I cut it? It's too big to scale, no that's not an option. The thoughts paralyzed Fyky and just as the whale is about to land on him, the whale suddenly disintegrates.

He sees where Din was, and Doc was standing behind him. "Well done Stringbean, you almost won."

"Thanks for the save Doc."

*** Black Hawk's Search ***

Black Hawk is now face to face with his prey in the back office of the warehouse.