Legacy's Wake

Temoshí lunged once more, his fingers grazing the rabbit's tail for what felt like the millionth time, only to misstep and land squarely on an electrified tile. The jolt sent him flying back, his body twitching and his hair standing on end as a faint zzzzztt sound filled the air.

His clothes were singed, smoke curling up from his collar as he groaned. The rabbit hopped to the nearest safe corner, pausing to twitch its nose at him in a way that screamed, Try harder, loser.

"You furry little—!" Temoshí growled, struggling to his feet like a man who had just wrestled a thunderstorm. His legs wobbled like a baby deer on ice skates, but he refused to back down. He darted forward, his movements erratic, flailing, and desperate as he dodged sparking tiles.

Above him, Aurelio's voice cackled over the speakers. "Captain, you look like a crab doing interpretive dance! I must say, it's truly a... shocking performance!"

"Shut up!" Temoshí snarled, nearly tripping as a tile sparked beneath his feet. The rabbit darted sideways again, zig-zagging through the electrified grid like it was mocking him.

Meanwhile, Tarot was having his own crisis.

On his knees with his forehead pressed to the maze floor, he muttered to himself. "Okay, okay. Left, right, jump. No, wait. Left, then jump, then—what the hell was step three again?!"

Before he could figure it out, a wall shifted with a mechanical whirr, slamming into the space where his head had just been. Tarot yelped and scrambled backward, gripping his staff tightly as his rabbit squeezed through an impossibly narrow gap.

"HOW does it fit through there?!" Tarot screamed, gesturing wildly at the rabbit, which had the audacity to pause and adjust its top hat like it was going to a formal event.

"Overthinking it again, monkey boy?" Aurelio's voice boomed, gleeful as ever. "Or maybe you're just underthinking. Honestly, you're such an enigma!"

Tarot narrowed his eyes and bolted forward, leaping over a shifting platform and narrowly avoiding a trapdoor that opened right under his foot. "I swear, if this rabbit doesn't have the key, I'm eating it."

He spotted the smug little creature perched atop a rising column. "Oh, I see. You think you're clever," he muttered, twirling his staff. "Well, let's see you outrun a cloud-surfing monkey!"

Tarot leapt onto the column, his staff spinning like a propeller to keep his balance. Just as he reached for the rabbit, the column dropped without warning, sending him tumbling headfirst into a pit of foam cubes.

"SERIOUSLY?!" he yelled, flailing as he sank into the cubes like a frustrated toddler. "This is just... insulting!"

Nathaniel's tunnel wasn't faring any better. He balanced precariously on a narrow beam that tilted violently with every step, spikes glinting ominously below. The rabbit, sitting just a few feet away, nibbled on an invisible snack as if it had all the time in the world.

"You think this is a game?" Nathaniel muttered, his voice low and deadly.

The rabbit twitched an ear and hopped to a retracting platform with casual ease, pausing to brush its top hat.

Nathaniel crouched low, his sniper instincts kicking in. He timed his steps carefully, calculating the movement of the beam and the speed of the spikes below. Just as the rabbit paused, he darted forward, leaping onto the platform just as it began retracting.

For a moment, he wobbled, arms windmilling as the platform tilted.

"Careful, sharpshooter!" Aurelio called out gleefully. "I'd hate for you to have a... pointed ending!"

Nathaniel regained his balance, his expression grim. The rabbit hopped back onto the main beam, shaking its little hat as if laughing at him.

"I am not losing to a rabbit," Nathaniel muttered, his eyes narrowing. He lunged again, this time coming just a hair's breadth from grabbing it before the rabbit slipped through his fingers like a ghost.

Each pirate faced their own brand of torment, the rabbits always one step ahead.

Temoshí looked like a manic dancer, jumping from sparking tile to sparking tile, his hair standing on end and his temper reaching volcanic levels.

Tarot was halfway out of the foam pit, his staff hooked on a ledge as he hauled himself up, muttering curses under his breath about how rabbits were "nature's con artists."

Nathaniel crouched low, moving with sniper precision, but the rabbit's unpredictable hops kept throwing him off.

Outside the casino, the bustling city streets were alive with the hum of chatter and flashing neon signs. Among the chaos, a massive screen mounted on a towering skyscraper drew an ever-growing crowd. The screen displayed the casino's interior, broadcasting every detail of Aurelio's twisted game show. Spectators gasped, laughed, and cheered, treating it like prime entertainment.

Standing at the edge of the crowd, Kyora, Yumiko, and Aurora stared up at the screen, each with a mix of disbelief and secondhand embarrassment.

"Is that... our crew?" Yumiko asked, squinting at the screen.

Kyora crossed her arms, raising an unimpressed eyebrow. "No, it's three circus rejects chasing rabbits. Of course it's them, genius."

Aurora tilted her head, her lips twitching in a mix of pity and amusement. "They're struggling... a lot."

On the screen, Tarot was flailing in a pit of foam cubes, shouting something incomprehensible while trying to grab a smug-looking rabbit. The crowd erupted in laughter as the camera cut to Temoshí, who had just stepped on yet another electrified tile. His entire body jolted comically, and smoke billowed from his hair.

Yumiko couldn't hold back a snort. "Oh no, look at the captain! He's about to lose it!"

Kyora rolled her eyes, though the corner of her mouth twitched upward. "He always loses it. What's new?"

Aurora pointed at Nathaniel, who was precariously balancing on a narrow beam. "At least Nathaniel looks like he knows what he's doing."

Just as she said that, the screen showed Nathaniel missing his footing, flailing for balance, and landing face-first on the beam. A perfectly timed squeak from the rabbit beside him made the crowd roar with laughter.

Aurora winced. "Never mind."

Kyora shook her head, muttering under her breath. "They're hopeless."

A burly man in the crowd turned to the girls, grinning. "Your guys are in that crazy rabbit game, huh? Tough luck. Aurelio's games are impossible to win."

Yumiko planted her hands on her hips. "Oh, they'll win. They're just warming up!"

The man chuckled. "Warming up? Looks more like they're about to get cooked."

Kyora jabbed Yumiko in the ribs before she could start a shouting match. "Ignore him," she said flatly.

Aurora leaned closer to Kyora, whispering, "Should we... I don't know, do something? They don't exactly look like they're winning."

Kyora's eyes narrowed as she studied the screen. "Not yet. If we barge in, we'll blow their cover. Besides, we need to figure out what Aurelio's endgame is."

"Right," Yumiko agreed, cracking her knuckles. "We wait for the right moment... then we smash everything."

Kyora sighed. "Yeah, sure. Great plan, as always."

Suddenly, the screen flickered, and Aurelio's face appeared in a close-up shot, his grin as smug as ever. He addressed the audience, his voice booming through the streets.

"Ladies and gentlemen of Casinova City, what a show we have today!" he declared, gesturing grandly. "Our brave contestants are battling it out in the Rabbit Run! But will they find the key? Or will they hop straight to their doom? Stay tuned!"

The crowd cheered, eating up every word.

Kyora's hands curled into fists. "He's treating this like a carnival act."

Yumiko narrowed her eyes. "We should be up there, helping them."

Aurora tilted her head. "Wait, did he just say find the key? That means they don't have it yet."

On the screen, the boys reappeared in the central chamber, staring at the cryptic cards in confusion.

Kyora sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Of course they don't have it. This is Aurelio we're dealing with. He's going to drag this out as long as possible."

Yumiko grinned, unsheathing her sword. "Alright, I say we sneak into the casino, slice our way to Aurelio, and put an end to this stupid game."

Kyora gave her a flat look. "Sneak? With you? You're about as subtle as a cannonball."

Aurora chimed in, her voice soft but firm. "Kyora's right. We need to be strategic. If we storm in without a plan, we'll only make things worse."

Yumiko huffed, crossing her arms. "Fine. But if those boys mess this up any further, I'm charging in, subtlety be damned."

Kyora smirked. "Deal. Let's just hope they don't embarrass us any more than they already have."

The three women melted into the shadows, determined to find a way into the casino. Above them, the crowd's laughter echoed as the boys' antics continued to play out on the massive screen.

Temoshí saw his opening when the rabbit hesitated a fraction too long. With a feral yell, he lunged, diving across three sparking tiles. His fingers closed around the rabbit's fur, and he held it aloft triumphantly, even as his body convulsed from yet another shock.

"Gotcha, you fluffy menace!" he growled, steam practically rising from his skin.

Tarot finally cornered his rabbit after flipping his staff like a pinwheel, creating a barrier that cut off its escape. He pounced, grabbing the rabbit with a victorious whoop. "Monkey wins again!"

Nathaniel's patience paid off. As the rabbit leapt to another platform, he anticipated its trajectory, lunging mid-air to grab it. He landed smoothly, holding the rabbit like a prize. "Told you I don't miss."

The three pirates reconvened in the central chamber, each clutching their squirming rabbit

The three pirates stood in the central chamber, each clutching a squirming rabbit, their faces flushed with triumph. Temoshí's singed hair stood on end, Tarot was still shaking foam cubes out of his boots, and Nathaniel looked like he had just emerged from a war zone—because, in a way, he had.

"Well, well, well!" Aurelio's voice boomed, filled with mocking glee. "You actually caught them! I'm impressed. Truly."

Temoshí held his rabbit higher, glaring at it. "Alright, furball, cough it up. Where's the key?"

The rabbit twitched its nose innocently.

Tarot flipped his rabbit upside down, shaking it like a coin purse. "Come on, fluffy. Give me the goods!"

Nathaniel peered into his rabbit's top hat, frowning. "There's gotta be something in here—"

But before they could investigate further, all three rabbits vanished in puffs of smoke. The only things left were their tiny top hats, which floated gently to the ground.

"What the—?" Temoshí stared at his empty hands, a vein twitching in his temple. "Did they just... poof?"

Tarot blinked at the hat on the floor, then at his hands, then back at the hat. "You've got to be kidding me."

Nathaniel bent down, picking up the hat with a scowl. "If this doesn't have a key, I'm gonna lose it." He flipped it over, shaking it gently. A single card fell out.

Each pirate found a card in their respective hat, each one bearing a cryptic message.

Temoshí squinted at his. "What does this even mean? 'Luck is a dance, and you're still learning the steps.' What the hell kind of fortune cookie nonsense is this?"

Tarot read his aloud. "'A rabbit with no key hides a greater mystery.' That's just... infuriating."

Nathaniel, ever the calm one, held his card up for the others to see. "'The real key is knowing when to fold.'" He paused, looking up at the ceiling. "Aurelio, I swear, if you don't start making sense—"

"Oh, come now," Aurelio's voice crackled with delight. "Did you really think I'd make it that easy? Keys? On rabbits? Where's the fun in that?"

Temoshí's fists clenched, his body still steaming from residual shocks. "Aurelio, I'm two seconds away from ripping this entire place apart."

"Temper, temper, captain!" Aurelio cooed. "You've proven you can catch rabbits. But now, it's time to see if you can keep up with the real game."

The chamber began to rumble, the floor shifting as more doors slid open.

"I hope you're feeling lucky," Aurelio teased. "Because things are about to get a whole lot harder."

Tarot groaned, slumping against a wall. "Why is it never the first challenge? Why can't it just end with the rabbits?"

Nathaniel adjusted his hat, stepping toward the new doors. "Stop complaining, monkey. Let's get this over with."

Temoshí cracked his knuckles, his eyes blazing. "Fine. Bring it on, Aurelio. But when I find you, you're next on my list."

"Oh, I'm counting on it," Aurelio replied, his voice dripping with amusement. "Now, off you go! The real fun is just beginning!"

With a final rumble, the chamber reshaped itself, forcing the crew into the next stage of Aurelio's twisted game.

To be continued...