On The Look-Out

[Im Yong Soo~!]

Toris kept his gaze on the pirates, his mind scrabbling through possible tactics once he saw it was going to get violent. There was a tense moment after the others drew their weapons, a brief calm in the gathering storm, before Toris made his move under the cover of Ivan's, hastily standing and to grab his chair by the arms, twisting low and slamming it as hard as he could against one pirate's legs, letting it go as it knocked him off his feet.

Still crouching low, the Lithuanian Captain reached for the gun at his side and the knife in his boot, forest eyes blazing fiercely as he let his mind fade down to bare instinct and observation, seeing out the corner of his eyes Ivan and Maria both engaging in conflict and waiting for one of his own.

One pirate charged him with a cutlass, and even as a part of Toris ringed with alarm the Baltic found himself rising to meet him, slamming his elbow high into the thug's stomach and slicing at his arm with the knife, making him drop the sword with a cry. Toris rapidly unbent his elbow, smacking the back of his gun hand into the other's face, wincing slightly at the jolt of recoil but managing to safely incapacitate him.

The Baltic looked to his two companions, shaking out the pain in his hand and getting ready to add his efforts to theirs if necessary, the non-reactive part of himself thinking about how strange it was that the battle mindset was coming to him so easily--almost instinctively. It had happened the night Ivan had kidnapped him from the passenger ship to Vilnius, and in any further conflict that the sort of lifestyle he had been shanghaied into brought forth. He still didn't understand, but neither did he question.

Toris lifted his knife-hand, locking his jaw, and got ready to unleash again.

[keyatehspazz]

Well crap, looks like they wanted a fight. As Ivan stood, she followed the suit, looking at the leader with a questioning look. She advanced slowly on him, giving him a small smile. “Really, do we have to fight, can’t we settle this with wor-“ She cut herself off, throwing the first punch into the unsuspecting man’s face. It was quite satisfying actually. Maria retreated quickly and got ready for whatever they were going to send her way. One of the men threw a punch at her, which she easily avoided and grabbed his arm, tugging over her shoulder as she turned, crouched, and pulled.

The result was him flying over her back to land on his own, the wind temporally knocked out of him. She grabbed one of the empty vodka bottles off the table and smashed it over his head, rendering him unconscious for the time being. She turned back to see the others with weapons, cursing in Spanish under her breath as she held the vodka bottle up, ready to strike again. In her peripheral vision, she could see Ivan and Toris fighting other men, going at it like pros, Ivan with his pipe and Toris with his knife and gun. In the back of her mind, Maria wished she had kept her gun on her hip, rather than unloaded in her bag. Then again, she didn’t want to kill them, she just wanted them to go down.

[ivan]

This might be getting a bit out of hand, and after seeing Maria was more than adequate if a bit squeamish about killing, in defending herself he decided it was best to end it before they themselves needed a surgeon. He ducked under a wild punch, using the hook where pipe and spout met to catch his ankle and yank him to the ground.

The Large Russian kicked him in the ribs, rolling him onto his stomach and planted a foot on the back of his neck; tapping his pipe over his shoulder when people paused," I'd take your inured and leave da? Could get messy~ if not." He waited to see what they'd do, twirling the pipe so that the spout rested against the back of the man's head," Well?"

He got sneers and laughs, men raising arms and fists again, and Ivan shrugged," Very well." He took a good hold with both hands and before anyone could stop him he swung back and than forward; keeping his foot on his back. "

Half of the head went sailing, grey and red and white splattering everywhere as the body convulsed under his foot; spasming wildly and nearly making him stumble. He wrinkled his nose, planting his foot firmly enough that you could hear the spine snap in the new silence.

[saldussapnai]

At the initial pause, Toris glanced to Ivan, resisting the urge to cut across his current opponent’s face in fear that it would bring the conflict to a roar again. That said, the Lithuanian did not lower his weapons, or take his eye off the opposing pirates, even as he heard the Russian deliver his ultimatum. The derisive laughter made Toris tense, and he set his jaw again, bracing his arm in preparation for what ever move came next.

That was when he heard the loud cracking squelch of iron shattering skull. The Baltic’s head whirled, staring with wide eyes back at the un-capped man at Ivan’s feet. Toris paled, feeling his stomach drop and roil, bile rising up his gullet at the shocking simplicity of the carnage. He visibly winced at the sharp ‘snap’ beneath Ivan’s boot, his knife hand trembling.

Swallowing back the burn and resisting the urge to shudder, he glanced up at the blond’s face. Toris was unable to catch Ivan’s eyes, and found he was partially glad he wasn’t able to. He wasn’t sure if he could handle the flash of violet glass just now. Besides that, he had a role to play…

The Lithuanian turned towards the remaining pirates, straightening his spine and lowering his chin, watching their open expressions reflect the horror he could not express even as he felt his own face harden and close, a funereal mask with wolfish eyes. “Stay your weapons, grab your injured, and get out unless you want to be ripped apart,” he muttered quietly, sounding at once threatening and cautionary. He tilted his head, snorting and gripping his weapons. “Think twice before you tangle with the Metall Podsolnuh again.”

The roughs stared back at him, for a moment forgetting that Toris was smaller than them, before they broke the silence and shuffled to their felled comrades, not looking either the Russian or the Baltic in the eye. The brunet sighed, pocketing his gun but keeping a trembling hold of his knife, and turned to Maria. He smiled slightly, even though there was a slightly sickly cast to the expression. “You held your own well, Miss Maria. I am sorry for the inconvenience.”

[keyatehspazz]

The way that Ivan delivered the final warning sent chills up Maria’s spine. What was he going to do? She readied herself as their opponents seemed to laugh, holding up the broken bottle in a threatening fashion. That was when she heard the sick crack and squelch. She spun around and looked at the man, corpse now, at Ivan’s feet. The snap under his boot made her flinch and she stood spellbound, unable to look away from the grey and red splattered across the floor and the remains of the man’s head under the Russians boot. Deep down in the childish part of her, she wanted to give a long, draw out ‘ew’ and cover her eyes. Maria turned slightly towards Toris as he offered his warning, her eyes darting from the captain and back to the bloody mess on the ground. As the other men left, Maria took a moment to turn back to the table and set the broken bottle on the table. That could have been worse, right?

But what kind of man was Ivan that he could do that without even blinking? Pushing the thought from her mind, Maria turned back to see Toris walking up to her. She chuckled weakly at his words, pressing her palms back against the table as she leaned on it, not quite trusting her knees. “Ah, well… I just did what I could. You guys were the real fighters.” Maria nodded to the knife in his hand. “Pretty fast hand you got there boss.” She noticed the slight paleness of his skin and sighed, hoping that she wasn’t the only one disturbed by Ivan’s action.

[ivan]

Ivan hummed softly, grimacing at the gore on his boots and his pipe; reaching down and pulling off a strip of the mans shirt to clean both before he tossed it on his corpse. He stepped away, tucking his pipe into his coat as he smiled brilliantly at them both," Another crisis averted da Ketpin?" He glanced at Maria, reaching out to pat her shoulder," You have good reflexes, very fast~! I am glad I had you both to watch my back da?" Ivan laughed clapping his hands together before he pulled his seat out and dropped back into it, hand reaching for the vodka, lifting it up," A toast to beating trouble!"

[saldussapnai]

Toris laughed quietly, perhaps a bit more airily than what sounded natural, and turned his head aside. “If you come out alive, doing what you can is more than enough.” He propped his boot on a nearby chair, crouching down to tuck his knife back into its sheath. He lingered there for a moment, swallowing and purging more shudders of aftershock before standing straight again, smiling. “Aciu, Miss Maria.”

He brushed his hair back, giving her a careful look over for both injury and signs of distress. The dark-skinned woman seemed to be bearing well against the sudden events—at any rate, she wasn’t going hysterical—and the Lithuanian’s smile became a bit more reassuring. “As far as being a ‘real fighter’, being resourceful is nothing to scoff at.” He gestured to the broken bottle on the table, and then to the chair he had thrown.

The Lithuanian jumped as Ivan arrived, smiling brilliantly and delivering his own approval. Toris struggled to maintain a pleasant face and not look down at the lingering stains, watching the blond settle down and quietly wondering at his suddenly cheerful demeanor. “Pleasant as that sounds, Ivan, I think it’s time for all of us to head back to the ship.”

He glanced at the sheepish men coming back from the bar, most of them still fingering weapons and giving the Russian a generous berth. “The men have had enough excitement for the night, and we need to acquaint Miss Maria with our ship.” Not to mention, if the Baltic had to keep up a façade of calm for very much longer he was going to scream…

[keyatehspazz]

"I can't disagree with that logic." Maria shrugged as she watched him put his weapon away. Quite frankly, she was trying to keep her vision away from Ivan and the corpse he had just made. And while she wasn't a speaker of many languages, she could guess was 'Aciu' meant. Her palms still held most of her weight, and while her smile was a little strained, she looked mostly in control. On the inside however, Maria was freaking out. After all, she had just seen her first mate kill a man without batting an eye. It wasn't exactly something she could just shrug off. Jokingly, she wondered what mental institute Ivan had escaped from.

She looked up as Toris spoke again, and it took her a moment to absorb his words. "Ah, well... heh, instinct, right?" Her own smile became a little more genuine, the light conversation taking off some of the edge to the shocking events that preceded it. At least, until Ivan arrived. Toris didn't jump alone, that was for sure. As he patted her shoulder and complimented her, Maria just gave a shaky smile and nodded. "Sí, and I hope I am never fighting against you." Maria hoped that came out sound like a complement like she meant it to be. As he clapped his hands an announced a toast, Maria silently wished she could just go lie down somewhere and focus on not throwing up.

When Toris made his next statement, Maria wanted to bless him. Get down on her knees and kiss her hand. Maybe she was just being theatric in her mind. As it was, she nodded and let out a small sigh. It was a little after that when the final part of the sentence kicked in. 'All of us' included her. 'To the ship' meant seeing an airship, up close and in detail. Her mind was still reeling from this thought when she heard the last part of the next sentence. Everything else was banished from her mind as a grin lit up her face. An Airship! Well, a zeppelin according to Toris, but still! A flying craft that made its way through the sky as easily as a fish swam in water. She was obvious to all else as her excitement bubbled inside of her. Maria couldn't wait to see the ship!