《The Wretched Treasures》 Prologue Prologue In the year 2127 humanity scaled new heights in space travel. The breakthroughs in aerospace technology allowed for travel to other nearby star systems. It was only in the year 2134 that a habitable planet was discovered in a star system humanity would later call Constellation. Humanity didn¡¯t name this star system themselves, nor did they name the planet Grandiose. Instead they found these rough translations left behind. Not only was the planet habitable, but also contained many species of animals and insects and it was apparent that the planet was also once home to a species just as intelligent as humans. However, for some, this intelligent species had left the planet behind. Humanity would soon uncover all sorts of machinery left on the planet. Some claimed they found pieces of robotic bodies, but none functioned well enough to learn much about the previous inhabitants of the planet. Nevertheless, this technology was more impressive than anything found on Earth. It was made from the pure metals the planet was abundant in. Treasures ripe for the taking. Humanity did what they always seemed to have a penchant for. They colonized. By the year 2137 the First Colony ships arrived on Grandiose. They took the land for their own and gathered the fortunes left behind. They remained blissfully ignorant of why these treasures were abandoned along with the planet Grandiose. One possible answer appeared the first time a human put on a treasure in a familiar shape, a mask. The masks known as the Wretched Treasures. The man called Silver entered the bay door of the satellite city Arkus 12. It had been a long flight from the surface of Grandiose. At first, the satellites may have orbited somewhat nearby the planet, but like all real-estate, property inevitably became expensive. The satellite cities were typically owned by larger research corporations on Earth. These cities were constructed in order to house the hundreds of researchers looking to study the space around Grandiose. Constellation was a binary star system comprising three planets, Grandiose, Exigent, and Verona. Though Grandiose was the only one of the three planets with life according to their sensors, many remained interested in studying the two gas giants as well as the star Grandiose orbited, Veris Minor. The corporations often purchased several of these satellite cities and hired landlords to sell or rent each property within the cities. The further from the planet, the less the buyers had to pay. The longer trips to the surface for fresh air and resources could still be a pain even with recent advancements in space travel. Silver was skeptical about taking jobs from stations on the far edges of Grandiose¡¯s orbit. Silver figured they typically couldn¡¯t afford to pay much if they lived so far out, though this one did promise to be a big pay day. Silver was a fairly tall man. He had long grayish hair and clothes to match. A grayish-silver cloak flowed from his back and hung low next to his tattered gray pants and boots. On his hip he had both a gun holster holding a revolver and a sword belt that held both knives and a long blade. Across his back, he also had a sword strapped which was typically hidden beneath his cloak. On his face he wore a mask, pulled down so that the eyeholes were aligned with his mouth. The mask, however, was quite a bit more than just a fashion statement. ¡°Hey if it isn¡¯t old Sharp,¡± said a man passing through the docking bay. The man calling to him was one he had seen before while checking out shady characters. Frequenting satellite cities, always looking for a new scheme, not unlike Silver himself. The man called Silver by a nickname he seemed to have made up, but Silver itself was a codename he had earned when he first started working as a bounty hunter. Since the planet was still fairly new to the people of Earth, they were yet to establish a true government. Therefore, the rule of law was not very clearly defined. Many governments of Earth¡¯s nations had tried to stake their claims and establish their own order, but none truly had dominion over the new planet. It was, however, apparent to all as to which lines of work seemed to be legitimate, and which ones were, in essence, the trade of new world outlaws. Silver couldn¡¯t manage to remember the man¡¯s name so instead he just gave him a nod as he approached, but the man¡¯s body language clearly signaled his interest in having a conversation. The strange man had started calling Silver by the nickname Sharp because of his Wretched Treasure. ¡°Sorry old man. No time for a drink. Duty calls,¡± said Silver. ¡°What duty? My duty is drinking today.¡± The man let out a hearty laugh, ¡°So you think you could use that sharpened nail trick to open this beer bottle for me? I¡¯m no good at party tricks like you.¡± Silver chuckled at the man, popped his bottle open for him, and continued on. Silver felt bad about not being able to recall the man¡¯s name, but there was so little he remembered about even his childhood on Earth, and so little about the day he decided to embark on the journey to this strange new planet. He had some sort of undiagnosed condition. It caused his long-term memories to be extremely fuzzy. Most of what he remembered about his life was after he had arrived on Grandiose. Although the new planet now had a good number of doctors, neurologists were still in short supply, and they charged an absolute fortune. For this reason, Silver let his condition worsen, and decided to ignore it entirely until later in life when he had the money and time. Even the moment he found his Wretched Treasure was blurry, yet oddly clear. It was almost a paradox of sorts. He couldn¡¯t recall what led up to finding it, but he was able to remember the first time he looked upon it. Staring into the empty eye holes as it stared back at him. It was like a recurring dream. One thing that was consistent in his memory was how much he had wanted it, how much he desired to put it on, and his ensuing transformation as a result of it. The Wretched Treasures were unique and horrifying in equal measure. Just as the planet''s name was translated by artifacts left behind, so too was the name of these Wretched Treasures. Each of them was shaped like a mask, similar to the kind one might wear in a play, or on Halloween back on Earth. Despite differing widely in appearance, they all gave the wearer a special gift... albeit at a terrifying cost. The gift could never be taken away, but the same was true for the cost as well. The second an individual placed a mask on their face it became linked to them. It was speculated that the mask somehow linked itself to the wearer¡¯s brain. Each of them had a sharp piece of metal at the edges of the eye line that briefly pierced the temple when they were put on. It was a very small spike, a quick pinch, and then the spike came back out. Like a shot in a doctor¡¯s office, but it was enough to make this connection. It created a sort of addiction, a need unlike anything man had ever heard of. More so even than any drug. The wearer came to believe the mask was needed to survive. The user could move the mask to any other position on their body, but it always had to touch them. They could not throw it away, or even let it be destroyed. There was a single acidic compound developed, most said by the newly established Alchemists Guild, a group of scientists who decided that science needed to reopen the possibility that so many laws of science could now be wrong after the discovery of The Wretched Treasures and technology left behind on Grandiose. Others claimed the Alchemists Guild was merely taking credit for the creation of Wretches Bane after translating a recipe found left by the lost civilization. Wretches Bane was supposedly developed after research deemed the Wretched Treasures dangerous to humans. This compound alone was able to melt the masks. No normal fire, explosives, or even chemicals could do the job. The compound was aptly named Wretches Bane. Even with the compound, destroying the masks was no easy task. The wearer would not allow it no matter how much they wanted it gone. They would fight to defend it. Perhaps even more curiously the mask would not allow them to willingly end their own life either. Even those that seemed to be suicidal suddenly found the urge to survive greater. It was as if the masks needed the wearer to live. Because of this fact some speculated that the masks were living creatures, ones that needed a host to survive, like a parasite. However, initial analysis of the objects showed no organic material. Instead they typically seemed to be composed of materials similar to metal, though with slight variances to the metals found on Earth. Elements found on Grandiose often differed from known elements after all.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Silver¡¯s own mask he called the Mask of Sharpness because of its ¡°First Edge¡±. Every Wretched Treasure was said to have two edges since they functioned like a double-edged sword. They gave the wearer great power, through some form of control of scientific forces around the user. This power seemed to border on magic, but researchers said it was merely science they had not yet come to understand. They were like cavemen studying fire. The First Edge was enough to entice many men and women to try on one of the masks, but like many things in the world the scales of science seemed to need there to be a balancing factor, the Second Edge. A terrible cost that came with the mask based on its power. The Mask of Sharpness was a prime example of this, nearly defining the phenomena. The First Edge allowed the user to fold and compact any material, to the point of making that material extremely sharp. This however also affected the user¡¯s own body. Their bones and nails could narrow and become sharp, sometimes at the user''s control, and sometimes without it. Therein lies the Second Edge. Often Silver would go to scratch himself in his sleep and wake up with a slice that required stitches. At times he had been careless in a fight and even stabbed himself with his own hand. Some said the Treasures were a blessing and a curse, but Silver knew they were far more curse than blessing. Silver walked through the long corridors of the satellite city. The halls were lined with doors displaying apartment or house numbers on digital displays. The term house was used a bit more loosely here in the satellite cities. The outsides looked no different than the apartments, but the insides were often fairly vast, though not quite as large on the outer orbit of the planet. Aside from housing, many doors led to office spaces, recreation rooms, and even restaurants, lined with glaring digital signs displaying all sorts of foods, attractive men and women, anything that would entice people to come in. Silver overheard one of the television sets through an open door, ¡°Ten years after the colonization of Grandiose humanity has made great strides in making Grandiose a second home for the people of Earth. Experts estimate that in the next fifty years nearly five percent of Earth¡¯s population will have migrated to Grandiose,¡± said the newscast. Silver found it best to ignore predictions so far into the future. For now, he enjoyed the planet still feeling fairly empty and new. Still he was surprised it had already been ten years since the colonization. How far is this damn place? Silver thought as he continued down the halls of the satellite city. Silver went by just about every door to every establishment in the city. He wasn¡¯t quite as spritely as he used to be, but he still kept in good shape for his business. Still this walk could tire anyone. Each corridor he went down seemed to have increasingly more lights either out or flashing like their batteries were at their end. Silver began to wonder if this job could even be worth it in a meeting place like this. The door numbers he came across were few and far between now, 2286, 2287, 2283...? Now they aren¡¯t even making sense¡­ great, he thought. Somehow it took him another five minutes before he finally hit 2299. It was the last door in the entire corridor. He reached for the door with his revolver at the ready by his hip. Just in case. Silver had made plenty of enemies in his time as a bounty hunter. The thought was always in his mind that a job could be a setup. No passcode? It was rare for jobs of this kind to have such lax security, but there was no way Silver was going back down that long corridor with no money. He opened the door to see a faintly lit room. There was a monitor, a few chairs, and two other men sitting to the side. The few working lights cast them in a slight shadow. Silver glanced at them for a second to check for drawn weapons before looking back towards the monitor as it began to speak. ¡°Well the last of the three is here. Now we can begin the briefing. Silver, I trust you remember your colleagues.¡± The voice came from a staticky looking figure on a computer screen. Not only was the picture blurry, but the man seemed to be streaming his image from a dark room to remain anonymous. Silver looked back, confused by the man¡¯s statement about remembering his colleagues. He stared at the two men sitting in the dark. He saw now that he did indeed recognize the men in the shadows. He quickly pulled his revolver with his right hand and slid a knife from his sleeve into his left hand. ¡°What the fuck are you two doing here?¡± Silver asked. The closer of the two men stood up slowly. He was clothed in mismatched gold armor, a yellow cloth shirt, and a golden cape. Even the man¡¯s mask was gold. The mask was elongated and extended back like a tricorn hat. He wore an eye patch, black, sitting oddly over the left eye hole of the mask. The man extended a hand towards him and Silver tightened his finger on the trigger. ¡°You know I can take it from you,¡± said the man. ¡°We were just as surprised as you when we saw each other. This asshole on the monitor is who we should really point the guns at, but clearly he¡¯s not actually here.¡± It was Gold, a code name just like Silver, dressed the part as usual, and covered in gold jewelry. The man sitting to his right was hardly a man at all, but Silver recognized him all the same. Mercury, an intelligent robot, and a bounty hunter from their same former organization. The Heavenly Metals were a group of seven bounty hunters. Each of them were given code names for seven metal elements. These metals were called ¡®Heavenly¡¯ during antiquity and represented different heavenly bodies: Gold for the Sun, Silver for the Moon, Iron for Mars, Tin for Jupiter, Copper for Venus, Lead for Saturn, and Mercury for¡­ Mercury. The six men were hand-picked killers who all wore Wretched Treasures. Mercury, who claimed he was a male robot, did not have a Wretched Treasure, but that did not mean he lacked special skills of his own. A man named Johnathan J. Platt had been the one who gathered them. He was a new world business man who ran a company called the Platinum Corporation. The business specialized in the biggest new market on Grandiose, rare metal trading. Mr. Platt¡¯s business emerged into the market well, but he had needed a bit of extra funding to build his empire. That¡¯s how he got into the business of bounty collecting. Grandiose was a bold new world with only a few groups powerful enough to define and enforce any kinds of law. In a lawless land plenty of people made enemies, and plenty of people paid to have their enemies killed. Platt had paired up six of the seven bounty hunters as partners. Gold and Silver often called the Prized Pair, Mercury and Iron: The Caustic Combo, and Tin and Copper: The Bronze Brothers. The seventh, Lead, worked alone. He was an assassin, and he took no live bounties. The pairs may have all had abilities that worked well together in theory, but partnerships between contract-killers rarely lasted long. Silver and Gold were a prime example of that. The two men weren¡¯t a terrible pair at first. In combat they seemed to always know what the other was thinking, and their abilities complimented each other well. Gold¡¯s first edge was the ability to pull any object with heavy traces of metal in them towards himself. It was like a form of magnetic attraction. He named this power Thief¡¯s Hand. As amazing as the power was, his second edge was even more fascinating in a way. Memories the owners had of the objects he stole would pour into his head in quick flashes. It seemed that people often attached strong memories and feelings to their possessions. The stronger the attachment, the more powerful the flashes were. Sometimes people had little to no connection to the objects, like with money or disposable objects. Yet other times people had unbelievably strong connections to their trinkets. Sometimes even horrifying ones. A knife they had used to kill someone, a necklace that belonged to a lost love. These flashes were horrible and full of emotion. Gold called these ¡°mementos¡±. One might think that the memories not belonging to Gold himself would mean they wouldn¡¯t affect him strongly. In fact, that is just what Gold used to tell Silver, but Silver had a strong hunch he was lying. In a fight Gold would often steal the weapons and ammunition of his enemies. Any melee weapons he stole he would toss to Silver to sharpen with his own mask and use against their enemies. He was always so fast and quick witted, yet occasionally Silver would see him pause, stare into space, and even nearly fall as he experienced the memories. ¡°Listen whoever you are, I''m afraid you¡¯ve brought the wrong guys together. I won¡¯t work with Gold or Mercury. I have worked with them before and I don¡¯t trust either of them,¡± said Silver to the man on the screen. ¡°I¡¯m aware of your history together, but that¡¯s why I need you three. Together you have the specific skill set I will need for this job. I will pay you with consideration to your objections. The job should take no more than a day,¡± said the man. Silver considered the offer. As much as he distrusted Gold, he couldn''t deny they worked well together for a time. Nothing truly went wrong until Platt tasked them with collecting a bounty on the captain of The Black Sunset. Silver and Gold It was nearly three years ago that Platt had given Silver and Gold the bounty on the captain of The Black Sunset. The Black Sunset was the flagship of a space pirate crew that robbed other ships heading to and from Grandiose. On rare occasions they also robbed satellites or small satellite cities. Their captain owned a handful of other small ships, but the Black Sunset itself struck fear into any ship that wandered too far from Grandiose¡¯ s inner orbit. There wasn¡¯t an abundance of space pirate crews around Grandiose, being that it was such a dangerous business, but the crew of The Black Sunset were among the most notorious. The two men had known it would be difficult when they first accepted the job, but very few of their contracts came easy. They had to search for outer lying satellites the ship frequented. These were often dangerous enough places on their own, but getting on the ship itself was almost impossible. Eventually they had to threaten the customers of small bars and bartenders in the satellite cities to find where the ship would stop next. Silver did not like using his skills to scare innocents, but it was not the first time he had to sacrifice his morals for his job. When the ship first showed on the dark horizon of space Silver¡¯s nerves had begun to set in. The ship itself seemed to be a grayish color originally, but it had turned nearly charcoal black. Rumor had it the color was from the soot and ashes of the ships it had destroyed. Banners hung from the wings like the sails of an old-fashioned sea pirate ship. The banners were gray and depicted a black sun being swallowed by a dark blue sea. Silver and Gold had decided the only way to get on the ship safely was to become a part of the crew, at least temporarily. The men on the ship may have been hardened killers, but they recognized their own kind. Silver and Gold¡¯s plan to get on the crew was to show off their Wretched Treasures. The Treasures were quite a rarity, and even men who had heard of them were still amazed to see something so close to magic for the first time. The men admired them for their Treasures and their power. After observing it for himself Captain Bill Bellows allowed them to join the crew Silver and Gold¡¯s gifts became very handy to the crew. They stayed on the crew far longer than they had expected. It was supposed to be in and out in a few days. Find the captain, get one of the smaller ships ready, and either toss him in alive, or toss his corpse onboard instead. The bounties were always higher pay for live captures, but dead would do if need be. Unfortunately, things rarely went as planned in the bounty hunting business. Captain Bellows was very paranoid. Old sayings claimed there was honor among thieves, but there was no honor among these pirates. Apparently even the previous captain had been mutinied upon. Since then Captain Bellows had kept only a few trusted men at his side. At least one of them always guarded his cabin where he spent nearly all of his time. Silver quickly became fed up with hanging around as one of the crew. Sure, they were skimming money from their new pirate ventures, but Platt was getting impatient with their reports. Not only was Platt¡¯s pay going to be bigger than a small share of piracy, but he also wasn¡¯t someone to be crossed, not when they knew he had five other bounty hunters at his disposal. They could end up next on his list if they weren¡¯t careful. Gold was starting to enjoy his time as a space pirate a bit too much for Silver¡¯s liking. Apparently, Gold had his own stint of piracy on the actual seas of Grandiose. The oceans on Grandiose were far rougher and more dangerous than the ones on Earth. Silver couldn¡¯t imagine why anyone would take such a risk, but Gold had always seemed a man with a high risk and high reward mentality. His days on the seas of Grandiose had apparently been how he came across his mask so he claimed he didn¡¯t regret any of it. Silver thought that Gold must have missed being a part of a crew. Gold became much closer with the crew of the Black Sunset than he had. Silver could feel himself drifting farther away from his partner. While he was focused on the mission, Gold was more focused on the treasure, robbing ships, and drinking rum. It came to Silver as a surprise when Gold was the one who found a way to escalate their plans. ¡°We will plot a mutiny of our own,¡± he had suggested. The crew¡¯s discontent with their captain was clear. Bellows took the lion¡¯s share of their hauls despite barely lifting a finger, he worked them to the bone and made his men take most of the risk, sending them out in space suits to collect the scraps and cargo from ships they destroyed. Men often died collecting the loot. Luckily Gold was great at it since he could pull all of the metal towards himself even in the vacuum of space using the magnetic powers of his mask. Silver and Gold went about sowing seeds of discord among the crew. All it took was adding a few words to whispers that had already started. Before long they already had nearly half the crew onboard with the mutiny. Less than half may not have been ideal for a true mutiny, but Silver and Gold only needed to cause a large enough distraction to abduct the captain and escape. Silver did not know at the time that Gold was using their plans for his own purposes. When the night of the mutiny came everything was going according to plan at the start. The mutineers held up those who chose to remain loyal to the captain at sword and gunpoint. There was a bit of fighting but only a few willing to die for their captain. There was actually less chaos than Silver would have preferred. The more gunshots that rang out the easier it would be to sneak off the ship with the captain as their prisoner. Silver had walked towards the captain¡¯s cabin. He had begun to worry. Gold was supposed to be with him at this point to disarm the guards, but he was nowhere to be seen, and the guards didn¡¯t seem to be at their posts either. It didn¡¯t sit right with him. Something was wrong. The cabin door appeared to be cracked open so Silver entered with caution, sword in hand and his revolver at the ready. He walked deeper into the cabin and saw something bright shift in the darkness. He nearly drew his gun but then he saw that it was Gold. He was standing over a body. ¡°Don¡¯t worry it¡¯s already taken care of.¡± Gold said. Silver glanced down at the body and pool of blood on the floor. Black coat, gray beard, it was the captain. Silver looked back up at gold. He was holding an odd-looking blade, it was gold in color, appearing to be a sort of split blade, one prong on each side and nothing in the middle until the hilt. ¡°Like it?¡± Gold asked, ¡°Look what it can do.¡± Gold clicked a button on the hilt and electricity began to bounce back and forth between the two prongs. It was blue in color and each spark reminded Silver of lightning. ¡°I¡¯m more so wondering why you killed him.¡± Silver questioned. ¡°We spent all this time here and now we¡¯re going to get a lower bounty. I thought we agreed to take him alive unless it was absolutely necessary to kill him.¡± ¡°It was necessary. I did what I had to do,¡± Gold responded. ¡°What you had to do? You couldn¡¯t have disarmed him with your powers? This neurotic old man?¡± Silver was growing more frustrated. His grip on his sword tightened. His nails grew sharper and nearly started to pierce into the leather hilt of his blade. Gold stayed silent. Looking back at him intently. It hadn¡¯t gone over Silver¡¯s head that he still had the electricity running on his new blade. Something was wrong. ¡°I suppose what¡¯s done is done,¡± Silver said reluctantly. He didn¡¯t want tensions to rise too high with the mission at hand. ¡°Grab the feet. I¡¯ll get his arms and we will sneak him out of here quietly while the others sort out the mutiny¡­ as planned!¡± Silver walked closer to the body of the captain. He stood near the captain¡¯s head and was about to lean over to grab onto the body, but he noticed Gold across from him. He showed no signs of leaning over to grab the feet. Silver narrowed his eyes. He could not tell the expression on Gold¡¯s face. His golden mask rested there at all times. The black eye holes stared back. The shadows covering his eyes made it hard to read him. ¡°I¡¯m not leaving Silver.¡± ¡°What do you mean you aren¡¯t leaving Gold?¡± Silver¡¯s grip tightened even more. He noticed Gold shifting where he stood. Widening his stance and turning his body slightly to the side so he was less wide, less of a target. Silver knew a fighting stance when he saw one, and Gold was clearly anticipating a fight. ¡°I¡¯m staying here. This crew needs a new captain and that is what I¡¯ll be now. You may not have realized it, but as we were planning this mutiny, I was suggesting to the others that I take the captain¡¯s spot. It seems they have taken quite a liking to me. They agreed,¡± Gold said. Silver shook his head in disbelief. ¡°No¡­ No, you¡¯re not. We have a job to do.¡± One that is less likely to get us thrown into a military prison than robbing shitty transport ships. One that pays a lot more per job than what we will get splitting the cut with a crew full of untrustworthy assholes,¡± said Silver. ¡°We won¡¯t get caught. If this dunce of a captain was good enough to not get caught, how will I? If you¡¯re worried about the money just remember that I¡¯ll get the captain¡¯s share and you¡­ if you¡¯re smart enough to stay I¡¯ll let you be my quartermaster and you¡¯ll get a larger share as well.¡±This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Gold¡­ Let me put this in perspective for you. If we abandon this bounty. If we run off on some space pirate ship with all of the supplies and funds Platinum fronted us¡­ We will be the next ones on the bounty list. He will send the other five after us and they will kill us!¡± ¡°I hear the Bronze Brothers went missing actually,¡± said Gold. ¡°That leaves only three to hunt us, and I¡¯ll have a whole crew and spaceship to back me up. I¡¯m staying. You can make your own choice. If you want to bring back some ammo and a few pieces of this treasure to pay Platt back what we owe, fine. Take it!¡± Gold threw a handful of coins at Silver. Some hit his feet and Bellow¡¯s body, others rolled across the floor. The sound alone was enough to irritate Silver even more. Gold could see it on his face. ¡°Oh, and if you think you¡¯re going to come for me if he asks¡­ then maybe I should kill you right here and now. It will save you the trouble of dying later.¡± Silver didn¡¯t want to kill Gold, but he could sense he likely had to fight him to leave with the captain¡¯s body. He hoped knocking some sense into him might change his mind. He moved his left hand away from his revolver into a pocket hidden beneath his cloak. He quickly pulled his oldest and sharpest knife. He had it since the day he arrived on Grandiose and after he put on his mask, he had sharpened the knife twice a day. Silver flung his arm forward quickly hoping to catch Gold off guard, but as he loosened his grip before the release, he felt the knife being pulled from his hand. Before he knew it, Gold was holding the knife. Silver couldn¡¯t see his eyelids beneath his mask, but he knew from experience that once Gold had stolen something, he experienced the drawback of the owner¡¯s memories in a quick flash. Silver had time to quickly pull another knife. This one he was able to throw before Gold could make a move. It looked for an instant like it may hit him in the shoulder where Silver aimed, but suddenly Gold snapped out of the memory and stretched his left arm out to the side. His fingers moved outward in a grabbing motion and suddenly the second knife¡¯s trajectory changed and moved towards Gold¡¯s outstretched hand. He moved his hand away at the last second. It had been coming too fast to catch this time. The second knife just barely missed Gold¡¯s hand and stuck with the blade end in the ground about 10 feet behind him. Silver could see this wasn¡¯t going to be as easy as throwing a few knives. He drew his sword, leapt forward over the body, and aimed a two-handed slash at Gold¡¯s upper torso. Gold blocked Silver¡¯s sword with his electric blade stolen from the captain. The electricity flowed freely between the two points, flickering blue lights flashed over each man¡¯s face as they stared each other down. Suddenly Silver heard metal shifting on the ground. It was the second knife he had thrown. Gold was using his powers to pull it off the ground, it flew several feet into Gold¡¯s empty left hand. He caught it quickly and lunged towards Silver¡¯s neck. Silver knew not to use his sword to parry or Gold would be open to slice and electrify him with the sword. Instead Silver dropped the right hand that was holding his sword, leaving only his left to fend off the crossing blades. He then swung his right arm in a chopping motion and cut the assailing knife clean off the handle. He had sharpened the bones of his forearm and hand significantly to accomplish the feat. Gold was now overpowering his left hand that was holding his sword. Silver had He kept his hand pointed and this time sharpened the tips of his fingers. Even with gloves on, they were now as good as daggers. He moved his feet and lunged forward in a thrusting motion with his right arm. Gold spotted the move just in time to shift his body to the side and evade it. Gold then swung his sword forward forcing Silver to parry several times. When Silver went back on the offensive Gold turned his blade sideways causing Silver¡¯s sword to cross through the electricity between the two blades. It gave him a momentary shock that caused his body to tense up. He pulled back again, but Gold pulled one of Silver¡¯s other knives out of his pocket and now assaulted him with both knife and sword. Silver could sense the danger increasing. Gold had shifted from going for wounding cuts or stabs to deadly ones. Silver backed away just far enough to pull a second sword from the hidden scabbard behind his cloak. Silver¡¯s skill with swords was unmatched on Grandiose since most preferred to use guns. He started to gain the upper hand on Gold. Slicing the blade from the handle of his knife. Then Gold used his powers to pull over a chest within the cabin. It topped open with necklaces, jewels, and small gilded blades spilling onto the floor. Gold pulled nearly half the pile towards him and then jumped out of the way allowing most of the treasures to strike Silver. Silver cut some to the sides, spilling beads of an ornate necklace on the floor. He couldn¡¯t evade all of them however and was badly bruised and cut by the trinkets. Silver was angry now and pursued Gold with far more vicious intent. Gold tried to pull everything he could into his free hand to fight with; candlesticks, small daggers, everything Silver cut to pieces. Still Gold¡¯s electric blade seemed to hold. Silver was able to make objects so sharp that they could cut through most normal metals, yet this blade barely had a scratch on it. It must have been made of solid gold or some unknown metal native to Grandiose. Silver hammered away at the blade with both of his own and still couldn¡¯t get it to break. Gold was playing the fight more defensively now, backing up and only parrying rather than going for risky counterattacks. Silver moved straight forward fast but he didn¡¯t notice, until it was too late, that Gold was barely gripping the sword in his right hand. Two of his fingers were stretched outward and then quickly brought back into a grip. That¡¯s when Silver felt it. A knife hit his back. He was too focused on moving forward, he had forgotten about all of the weapons on the ground behind him. Two fingers were all Gold needed to pull the knife with his powers and stab Silver in the back. Silver was distracted by the pain. Gold swung his blade in upward slash cutting across Silver¡¯s face and his left eye. That¡¯s when the electricity shot out. For a moment all Silver saw was light. A flash and then a memory¡­ A memory he didn¡¯t know he had. It was a white light, it formed an arrow and pointed towards something. Perhaps it was the sun, or some other star. He heard a voice saying ¡°North. North. North,¡± over and over. Before he knew it, he was back to looking at Gold, standing across from him with his blade dripping blood that seemed to disrupt the electrical current. Silver¡¯s vision was odd. He could still see out of his left eye just barely, but it was like a like white streak blocked the center of his vision. He closed it so only his good eye could stare ahead, and he noticed even Gold seemed stunned as well. Had the memory affected him too somehow? It was something silver wondered about even to this day. After Gold had nearly taken out his eye Silver grew angry at the attempt on his life. One inch deeper of a cut and he would have been dead. He dropped his swords and drew his revolver. He moved the barrel in place and fired. Gold must have snapped back to reality as he heard the barrel turning, as he quickly thrust his left hand just as the shot rang out. The bullet was actually pulled towards his hand, but that in no way stopped it. Blood started to bloom like a flower from Gold¡¯s palm. The bullet had gone straight through and landed on the ground behind him. The bullet shone on the ground; it was silver with little drops of red blood dripping slowly down the sides. Silver turned the barrel to ready his next five bullets. Gold pulled all of the jewelry on the ground in front of him as Silver fired. Silver still fired through the storm of trinkets almost blindly but consistently. He heard many of them clink off of pieces of metal, but once they cleared, he found one had hit its target. Gold was dripping blood from his hip. Silver was out of bullets, but one still remained intact on the ground, the silver bullet. Silver bullets were always somewhat special. Usually made just for show or by some nut job that thought they were a monster hunter, but this one was even more unique. Silver spun the barrel and the bullet was pulled towards the weapon. Gold tried to pull it with Thief¡¯s hand as well and It hung suspended in midair, halfway between the both of them. ¡°You¡¯re going to use it against me then? The gun we made together? You couldn¡¯t have engineered that revolver without my powers,¡± said Gold. ¡°I remember those days well, as an engineer I was always fascinated with your mask¡¯s powers. Magnetism was the one thing I felt the two of us could be smart enough to replicate. I wanted to try making a weapon that could recover its own ammunition. You thought I was crazy until we made that ¡°junker rifle¡± for you,¡± said Silver. He was hoping to distract Gold with his old stories. ¡°I¡¯m the one who thought of the large magazine and wide barrel. With my powers I was able to fire anything, even scrap metal. I still use it once in a while. Even this beaten up it has nearly infinite ammunition,¡± said Gold. Silver had found even himself reminiscing as if he had fallen for his own trick. Next the two had set out to discover if they could apply the same concept to a weapon that Gold wouldn¡¯t be using himself. They started work on a super magnet, but the magnet was always too large to fit in a gun until Silver used his own powers to fold and compact the metal. Then Silver managed to sharpen his knife enough to make just the slightest scratch on Gold¡¯s Wretched Treasure. They took the metallic dust from the scratch and melted it into the magnet. They then designed a mechanism on a revolver that would trigger the magnet. At first, they had little luck with most basic metals that bullets could be made out of. However, eventually they found a winner. Silver thought of his own code name and gave making a silver bullet a try. It was pure luck really. He melted down the metal and fashioned the bullet like a true gunsmith. Sure enough the first time they spun the barrel it returned. It took them days of tweaking to get the return right so it didn¡¯t just miss the barrel and hit Silver or destroy the revolver, but now it worked perfectly every time. It had been a unique few days. The project was one of the rare times the two men had genuinely enjoyed each other''s company and worked together as true partners. Silver almost felt guilty for using it against him now, but he had no choice. ¡°Remember what you said when we were done making it? Silver asked, ¡°Just like you; shiny, cold, and kills people.¡± Gold chuckled, ¡°I stand by what I said. You haven¡¯t changed a¡­¡± As Gold was talking Silver pulled his last knife. He threw it straight at Gold¡¯s face forcing him to stop his pull on the bullet and redirect the knife. Silver pulled the bullet straight back in through the barrel and into the chamber. Gold had already done him the favor of closing his left eye with the slash earlier. It focused his aim. He wouldn¡¯t forget that attempt on his life and he couldn¡¯t risk another. Silver aimed directly at Gold¡¯s own eye as his head turned back towards him. To this day Silver recalled what it felt like to pull that trigger. BANG! The shot rang out loud and startled even Silver, but what startled him even more was what he had done. He had pulled the bullet back at the last second with a spin of his barrel. He wasn¡¯t sure why he had stopped it, he guessed it may have been no more than an instinct, but he heard Gold shout out in pain. He had fallen onto his knees and clutched his eye. Silver was certain he had stopped the bullet just an inch from Gold¡¯s brain. Whether it was instinct or emotion he walked away that day without taking Gold¡¯s life. Instead he took only the ship captain¡¯s hand that he severed from his corpse. Platt accepted it, but was angry to learn that Gold had turned coat. His anger only grew when he heard the rumors that the Black Sunset was back to robbing more ships under a new captain. A man who wore an eye patch over his golden mask.