Mutants Overboard

Remy awoke slowly to the sound of water splashing around him and the salty smell of the ocean invading his nose. He could feel the ground rocking back and forth and he immediately got the urge to roll over and vomit. Once his stomach was emptied of its contents, he weakly opened his eyes to observe his surroundings. He didn't see much. He lay surrounded by a couple of wooden barrels which consequently blocked his view of whatever could be behind. The room he was in was dark and damp. He shivered slightly from the cold and wrapped his brown trench coat tighter around himself as he crawled over to the nearest barrel. He braced himself against it and stood up on shaky legs, panting heavily as all of the energy seemed to have been drained out of him.

"Oi, who be there?" said a dark voice, with some sort of British accent.

Remy couldn't think, let alone reply. He felt a slight case of vertigo. He had to close his eyes and could only hear the stranger as he got closer to him. A hand shot out, and grabbed a fistful of his long auburn hair and Remy winced in pain.

"A free pass'nger, eh?" The man tugged painfully hard on Remy's hair, making the younger man gasp as he awkwardly tried to follow the stranger wherever he was heading. He had a feeling that if his legs were to give out, he'd have a large bald spot on the top of his head...which, obviously, wouldn't be very attractive. He opened his eyes just in time to see a door open, letting the daylight strike at him. Remy closed his sensitive eyes again, his weak arms trying to grab onto the man to get some sort of support.

The man shoved Remy down on the floor, and the mutant just barely caught his balance enough to kneel on the wooden floor instead of ending up sprawled face down on it.

His hands clutched desperately at his temples as he tried to get the vertigo and nausea under control. He could hear voices talking, but his head hurt too much for him to make out much of what they were saying. He could feel a cool breeze on his face and hear water splashing around him. Though his thoughts were foggy, he managed to realise that he was now on a boat. Great, so the mutant he and Wolverine were supposed to confront was some sort of a teleporter. Just great.

Once again, a hand took a painfully tight grip on his hair and used it to pull his head back, and he could hear someone talking to him. He tried to ignore the pain and concentrate on the voice, as it repeated itself. He was still shaking, and a thin layer of sweat now covered his body. His mind felt clogged. Apparently, he'd gotten a fever.

"I said, open yer eyes, whelp!"

A slap across his face made Remy open his crimson on onyx eyes as he became fully conscious. He stared right into the dark eyes of a short, dirty man, whom didn't bother to hide his shock at the sight before him. A voice behind the man spoke up.

"It's a demon! Throw it into th' ocean, I say!"

The voice was soon accompanied by some others, all rooting for their Captain to throw the devil's spawn off their ship. Remy shook his head violently; there was no way that he would survive, being tossed overboard in his current condition!

"No, don't!" he croaked, his throat dry and sore.

"It talks!"

Remy opened his mouth, trying to speak again, but his voice refused to obey him. The man, who still held a tight grip on the silky auburn hair, took another look at Remy.

"Men", he called out. "Put this...thing in th' cell below deck, we might be able ta sell 'im when we reach Singapore."

Remy's eyes grew wide at the man's words and he desperately wanted to struggle against the men that grabbed him, but he had no strength left in his body to offer for any sort of resistance. The sailors dragged him below deck, while the Captain looked after them, stroking his beard as he contemplated their new passenger.

No doubt there'd be at least someone who would be interested in owning that creature.



***



"Oi, Cap'n."

Jack sauntered over to where Anamaria stood, and she gave him the telescope. "Merchant ship, straight ahead."

Jack grinned as he looked the ship over.

"It don' seem t' have anythin' special on it, but me precious Pearl's screamin' fer a li'l conflict." He stroked the wooden railing of the ship gently, as a lover would, before handing the telescope back to the dark skinned woman, and calling out for the crew to get the Pearl ready.



***



Remy awoke slowly. His head felt a little bit clearer now, but his throat was as dry as before, if not more so, not to mention the fact that his skin was now hot to the touch due to the fever. He opened his eyes and glanced around his cell, where he was laying on its dirty floor. He must have passed out, because he didn't even remember being brought down here. All of his thoughts stopped when he saw it - a pitcher with fresh water. The Cajun moved as fast as he could towards it, and gulped the water greedily, any thoughts of it being poisoned never even crossing his tired mind.

Suddenly a loud explosion shattered the air and the ship lurched violently. Only now did Remy hear the commotion from above. A dark voice shouted orders, and the sounds of many pairs of heavy boots running across the wooden deck echoed down to him, where ever he was. It didn't take long before Remy could hear other persons boarding the ship and fighting the sailors.

Remy threw the empty pitcher aside and put his hands to better use, rummaging through the pockets of his pants in search of his lock picks. Damn but the sailors had really gone through everything! He noticed his trench coat tossed carelessly on the floor, well out of reach outside of his cell, and on it were all of the removable parts of his outfit; the belts, extra pockets, gloves and his Kevlar shirt - even his boots! Bastards. He kicked at the steel door with his bare left foot and cursed silently. If only he had his powers...

He wandered restlessly around in his small cell, thoroughly studying every inch of his surroundings, trying to figure out if, and how he'd be able to escape.

He must have lost all sense of time, because the door to the small room suddenly opened. Remy tensed and stared at the two men who entered. The men looked like they had gone a long time without a shave, and they were wearing tattered clothes, with fine sharp swords in their hands. One of them had short white beard and a green bandanna on his head, he seemed to be at least sixty years old. The other one was perhaps in his early fourties. He had dark, unruly hair, and a dark beard and moustache covered his lips and chin. As almost every other human would have done, they stopped dead in their tracks and stared at the glowing red eyes that met their own in the dark.

Remy leaned toward the cell door that separated him from the men and smiled charmingly.

"Bonjour", he purred with a voice smooth like honey. His power to kinetically charge objects may have been gone, but he was still a charmer, after all. The rogues seemed to fall under his charm by that simple word alone. Remy's smile turned into a grin, as he started to babble nonsense in smooth Cajun French succeeding in charming them even more. "Dis cell be quite petite; would yuh be so kind t' help poor Remy out, mes braves?"

His eyes locked onto the dark haired rogue as this one stepped forward. The man took out a small piece of metal from his boots, and used it as a lock pick. It took a while, but he managed to unlock the cell and Remy wasn't hesitant at getting out.

"Merci, mon ami", said he as he gathered all his belongings as quickly as he could and silently made his way out, leaving the two men alone with their confused minds.

Remy made his way up on deck to take in the scenery. He could see a couple of pirates dueling a short distance away, and narrowed his eyes. Pirates? The damn teleporter must have sent him back in time! Remy cringed at the thought, then used his naturally graceful movements to sneak unnoticed away from the commotion, and to find somewhere safe to hide until the intruders had left and he could find the right moment to take over the ship. Unfortunately, he didn't manage to sneak away completely unnoticed. He cursed under his breath as he felt the tip of something -- a sword, maybe? -- against his back.



"Tryin' t' run off, eh?"

"Mebbe. Ah have nothin' t' do wit' dis, cher." The mutant's voice was, like earlier, soft and enchanting, but the man behind him wouldn't fall one bit for the charm. Fuck.

Remy quickly turned around and struck out at the man. If he had been stronger he would have disarmed the man within seconds. The pirate seemed to realise that as well, and he raised his eyebrows in appreciation. "Nice move."

Remy got his fully extended bo-staff into his hands and continued to strike at the man, who easily escaped the hits. The damn pirate even seemed to enjoy it. Remy gritted his teeth in frustration as he started to attackmore fiercely, the sweat from both his hard concentration and his fever started to pool up on his face, and trickle slowly down his back, but the pirate still didn't seem to find it hard to defend himself. With one swift move, the man kicked his leg out and made Remy fall. He then placed the tip of his sword against the mutant's throat.

Remy panted hard and glared daggers at the pirate, who looked him over. Red on black eyes. Strange but nice. Dirty brown trench coat. Some sort of metal staff in his hands. Black shirt and pants, made out of a material unknown to the the pirate. Gorgeous black boots though. And such soft-looking auburn hair.

"Yer not from around here, are you?" muttered the pirate softly, more to himself than to Remy.

Deciding that the exhausted young man didn't make much of a threat at the moment, he removed the sword and sheathed it as he called for one of his men to come over, his eyes never leaving the young man's before him.

The nausea hit Remy again and he gasped for air as his body wanted him to empty his stomach of what little contents it had left. He started to sweat and shake once more, as the damned blackness threatened to overtake him, but he used every ounce of his will-power to stay awake and aware.

"Cotton! Adams!" The two pirates that had been down to Remy's cell hurried over to their captain. "Take 'im t' th' Pearl." With those words, the pirate turned to take care of business. The sailors of the ship had been defeated and were surrounded by the pirates but Remy didn't get to see what the pirates would do as the two -- Cottons and Adams, was it? -- took a good grip on him and half carried, half dragged him over to the railings, over a plank that connected the two ships, and down to the lower deck of the black ship.

Despite his desperate struggles to stay awake, the darkness soon overtook him, and he fell back into unconsciousness.