Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece.


A loud explosion blew a cloud of smoke and fire into the sky.

"Watch where you're throwing those things, Nettie!" Kid shouted, as he dodged another flask. It burst mid-air a few feet behind his head, and he turned with a furious snarl at the woman responsible. Was she trying to kill him? Because he'd gut her first. "Get in my way again, and I'm going after you!"

"It was an accident, Captain!" she yelled back from her position up on the crow's nest of their ship.

"Like hell it was!"

"Well, I knew you'd dodge."

"So, you actually admit to lying to my face?" he snarled, but his attention was soon taken when he felt a vicious burst of intent a distance away.

It wasn't long before one of his other crew members shouted for him to look across the sea. Kid found two more Marine warships headed their way. He cursed under his breath. This was what he hated about marines—they came in waves. At least pirates had the decency to attack all at once.

"What should we do, Captain?" A crew member asked.

"Get rid of them of course," another said, while drawing a set of twin blades from the sheathes he had tied around his hips. "Don't let them get any closer to the captain!"

"No further," one of their more stoic members said in agreement, as he cut another Marine down.

"Yea, I don't want to deal with more grunts," Kid decided, while deftly sidestepping the downward slash of a saber. He brutally kicked the Marine that had tried to cut him. It was strong enough that the sorry idiot went flying straight into the ocean. Oh, Kid really hoped that he was a Devil Fruit user.

"Captain hasn't had breakfast yet!" another crew member snickered from across the ship. "We'd better deal with them quick, before he goes berserk and kills us all."

"What was that?" Kid summoned a fist of metal. Marines screamed in the background. "Say that to my face!"

"I was joking, Captain!"

"I'll take one," Killer suddenly volunteered, his weapons at the ready. He jumped on the ship's rails, then kicked off with inhumane speed towards the closest enemy battleship.

"That's one."

"Whoa, look at him go!" the crew cheered when the enemy ship's mast got sliced in half.

Kid clicked his tongue in irritation when his stomach suddenly growled. He was about to go and do the final one himself when someone shouted his title. He looked back up to the Crow's nest to find Nettie with her arm half raised in offering.

"I'll take the other," she said.

He raised an eyebrow. "Then what are you waiting for?"

"I need your help, Captain."

Kid made a noise of approval, before raising his hand in preparation.

Nettie's dark hair billowed in the air behind her, as she jumped onto the banisters. She loosened the white cravat around her neck and placed her goggles over her eyes in preparation. Nettie reached into the pockets of her polka-dot lab coat to grab flasks filled with bubbling liquid. Each one had a corkscrew top with tiny metal needles embedded inside. The way she waved the flasks in her hands had some of the crew members backing up in unease. They all knew what those tiny glass encasements held, and not one of them wanted to be in the way once their captain used his powers to fling them onto the enemy ship. They were more effective than any cannonballs their ship could fire.

"Incoming," she warned, before dropping the flasks.

Kid hastily dropped his goggles over his eyes. The crew heard the familiar sparks of electricity, before they saw the purple currents emit from their captain's hand.

"Repel!" he said.

The flasks took off in the direction of the enemy battleship. Crew members ducked left and right to avoid unintentionally getting caught in the line of fire, as Kid blindly threw the bombs forward. There was a moment of silence until the flasks hit home. They could tell when the contents within spilled out into open air because there was a quick siphoning of breath all around a twenty meter radius. The winds, themselves, seemed to boil. The salt in them grew denser in a way that made it hard for them to breathe.

But then the moment passed, and the blasts that followed tore the warship apart. It was a tsunami of lawless fire. Brilliant and terrifying to everyone around them. Black smoke spread outward. A cloud of poisonous oxygen released over the ocean.

Ripples rocked not only the water, but the very air around them, making some of their weaker members stumble back from the aftershock. Distantly, Kid registered Wire ordering his men to make sure they didn't drift too far for Killer to jump back. But it was for naught, since Killer reappeared by Kid's side, perhaps having sensed the coming danger should he have stayed on the other ship for a second longer than necessary.

"Get us out of here," Heat ordered, not wanting to get caught in the gas.

They had antidotes, but administering them was always a pain because of how quickly the poison spread. The last time their men got caught in one of Nettie's lingering explosions, they threw up enough to rot their teeth and turn their throats raw.

With his keen eyes, Kid had noticed one Marine officer actually attempt to shatter one of the flasks with his cudgel. He had good reflexes. Unfortunately for him, those flasks were meant to detonate as soon as their contents met oxygen. It had exploded, before the marine could even think to move out of the way. Kid knew from experience that his skin was melting from his bones right about now. He hadn't taken Nettie into his crew because she had some misguided penchant for mercy after all. Those marines would be little more than soft muscle and sinew by the time their comrades found them. Though that was assuming they didn't sink to the bottom of the ocean first.

Kid laughed manically at the destruction around him. His hunger was quickly forgotten in the face of so much chaos. He noted that the screams that pierced the air were exactly the same as the ones he'd heard so many times before from the Marines back in Paradise. The New World was harsh, but it seemed that all Marines, no matter their rank, whined the same.

Kid looked up at the sky. He could tell by the appearance of the sun that it was approaching afternoon now. He really needed to eat something. For the briefest of moments, his eyes met Nettie's from where she stood high above the rest. She was grinning from ear to ear. The triumphant look on her face was one that could infuriate him to no end when they were alone together, but right now, it made his chest swell with pride.

As she dropped her goggles back down to her neck, he mimicked her expression. And upon seeing the grin on Kid's face, his subordinates cheered, though it didn't break their sudden stare down. She had on a face that seemed to scream—Look what I made! As if she were bragging to him about her growth. He knew she'd never say it out loud; she hated speaking about how much she'd developed her skills this past year they'd spent traversing the seas of the New World. Kid already knew though, no, they all knew because they'd grown together.

They shared a long look after that. Both of their features were limned by streaks of sunlight and the flickering fires of the explosion from the warship.

He was the first to look away, only because his nose caught the scent of meat sizzling from the kitchen. Kid's eyes roamed over his crew—the Kid Pirates—in all of their hyperactive, violent glory. They were a good bunch. A strong one. If they continued to remain by his side, then he'd be able to conquer every ocean in the world. All of their dreams were riding on his shoulders. He swore he'd see them to their completion, and if he had to go through hell to do that, then he would. Gladly, too.

Behind them, the flames continued to burn red and glorious over the horizon.