Sup! This one came to me after watching a couple episodes of Walking Dead. In all honesty I don't understand why people like this show. Maybe there aren't any other zombie shows... Anyhow, no beta here either.
Rating: K+/T
Song of the drabble: Waiting Fot The Sun by Simon Erics
Ace enjoyed zombie movies as much as the next guy. Of course it was fun to watch people run around and get eaten by the undead. He certainly didn't expect that it would be his reality at the young age of twenty two. Until the outbreak normal people and Devil Fruit users lived alright side by side but that changed as soon as normal people realised that zombie virus didn't work on users. After series of prosecutions that led to many users being killed, people discovered that there was more to it. Users were like natural enemies of the virus – zombies went for them first, not stopping until they all but ripped the user apart.
A user attracted the undead like a magnet, gathering every single one of them from a radius proportional to their power. That's where seastone metal came in – before it was used to restrict users in jails and so on, now it was used by users themselves when they didn't want to alert every zombie in five kilometres radius.
Ace was a user and a handy one too – his power was fire. As soon any kind of government formed, they sent people to Mt. Corvo where Ace lived with his brothers to convince him to join them. It was annoying, but he could see what they were thinking – his powers were extremely useful in zombie extermination. Whoever had his allegiance could easily establish dominance over other states. So far he didn't like anyone – every single one of them thought about them first.
Still, he admired their determination and the number of suicidal people they could command – getting to Mt. Corvo meant crossing an incredible number of the undead. Reason for that was that even undead learned that if they come into Ace's territory, they will burn. Yet, when he left the mountain they all attacked him as if on a cue. Maybe if he wore anything made of seastone it wouldn't be the case but he had no idea where to find anything like that.
"Hy, Ace, we have new idiots sneaking their way here," his brother Sabo yelled from beneath the tree Ace was currently sitting in.
"Any idea where from?" he asked and climbed down.
"Nope. Let's go to the border to meet them?" Sabo asked.
"No." Ace smiled mischievously. "I'll make a wall. Let's see what they will do."
"Don't burn yourself," his brother chuckled.
"Fuck off," Ace snorted, starting to walk towards a burnt line that was the border.
Upon arrival he stayed in the shade of the forest, climbing another tree, and from there he made the wall of fire that often surrounded the mountain. Then he waited. Containing the wall wasn't straining at all – after all he just made it around the half from where the intruders were coming. With a big escort too – when zombies felt that he was by the border they started gathering in hopes that he would leave his territory and that they will finally get him.
Soon he could see them in his simple pocket binoculars – two men walking amongst an army of undead, wildly looking around. Apparently being so blatantly ignored was a new thing to them. Ace watched them from his spot in a tree, soon joined by Sabo and Luffy; the former managed to sneak some food past the latter for which Ace was grateful.
By sunset the intruders made their way to the fire wall. Luckily, brothers were hiding close enough to overhear their conversation:
"I don't think we are welcome here," said one of them.
"Gee, what gave it away? Right, a freaking wall of fire! Can't you just fly over it or something?" said the other.
"I don't think it would be a smart thing to do – as long as I wear the pendant I am not competing with the user on that mountain. I take it off and I become lunch for our lovely companions," snorted the first one.
"By the way, what's with that? I've never seen them behave like this."
While the intruders discussed the abnormal behaviour, three brothers quickly talked to each other and decided that they should at least greet their guests.
"Who are you?" Sabo asked sternly – this time it was Sabo's turn to negotiate. Unlucky were those that arrived when the turn was Luffy's. "What is your business here?"
"We are here to talk to the Firefist. My name is Thatch, I am commander of the fourth division of Whitebeard army," the second voice.
"That's a first. Never had such a big fry around here. Who's your friend?" Sabo asked, they exchanged looks with raised eyebrows.
"My name is Marco. Can we speak to the Firefist?"
"You are talking to him," Sabo snickered quietly; Ace gave his brother a toothy grin. Luffy was whining, demanding to go and kick some zombie asses, firmly held in his spot by two older brothers.
"Can we talk face to face?" The commander asked.
Ace shrugged and made a hole in the wall; zombies started to shuffle agitatedly around the intruders.
"'Can we come in' was what he was asking," the man called Marco said, looking at the waist high wall of fire between them and their target.
"I'd rather we come out to you," Sabo said with a grin at the same time as Luffy yelled:
"Let me go! I wanna kick zombie ass!"
"Can't you wait for five minutes?" Ace asked, rolling his eyes.
"But you and Sabo always steal all the fun!"
"Let him go, he can have a head-start," Sabo said with a smile, releasing his side of Luffy.
"Alright," Ace raised his hands.
"Awesome! Second Gear!" Luffy yelled and bolted.
"Is it alright to let him go by himself?" the commander asked with a worried expression.
"No need to worry," Ace said with a smile, him and Sabo taking a step forward simultaneously. The remnants of the wall in front of them disappeared and zombies were going crazy around them, pushing and howling, but still none tried to invade their borders.
"Are you sure we can't come in?" the commander asked sheepishly.
"Be our guests," Ace answered and he and Sabo finally stepped over the border.
The howling probably deafened the newcomers, unused to such behaviour. From above it probably looked like the earth boiled – so strong was the desire of the undead to see Ace and his brother torn apart; to Luffy's dismay zombies completely forgot about him. Each sporting a feral grin, Ace and Sabo sprung into action.
Not one person that came to the mountain in search for the fire user expected to see that there were two of them. The reason for that was... unique for the lack of other words. When they acquired the fruit, Luffy already ate his, so Ace and his brother had to settle it between them. The best way to solve it was, of course, game of rock-paper-scissors, best out of three. When it was a tie three times, they split the fruit in halves.
It took about fifteen minutes of blazing inferno to get rid of majority of the undead in front of them. The remaining ones scattered with sad howls, very unhappy with the outcome. Luffy, angry with his brothers for stealing all the fun, ran off to pursue them. After another quick game of rock-paper-scissors, Sabo followed their younger brother to make sure he didn't get lost on his way back, leaving Ace to finish the conversation.
"Did you enjoy the show?" He asked teasingly when he returned to the intruders.
"Wait a sec, how is this possible? I thought the blond one was the user..." the commander said with a confused look on his face.
"Technically, all three of us are. Just in case you decide you can get what you want by force."
"That wouldn't be smart," said Marco and Ace took a closer look at him, illuminated by the still present wall of fire.
Let's just say that living on the mountain left Ace will about zero handsome men around him. Of course, Sabo was good looking and Luffy looked cute, but that was just wrong in Ace's opinion. The man in front of him had blond hair, a shade lighter than Sabo's, tan skin and an incredible built that clearly showed that the man in front of him fought a lot. He couldn't see the colour of the eyes from that distance and with that lighting, but it was either green or blue for sure. Ace mentally crossed his fingers for blue.
"Who are you?" Ace asked, his eyes focused on the visible pendant that they overheard them discussing.
"We are..." the commander started to explain, but Ace cut him off.
"Not you. What I want to know is who is the person calling himself Marco."
"Why?" the man demanded.
Ace did his best to suppress a shiver that he felt when he thought how appropriate that commanding tone would be in a bedroom.
"Either name yourself or leave," Ace said, hoping that the reason, namely him, was important enough for them to answer his question. He didn't want to appear desperate but it was really long time since he got any action that didn't involve his hand.
The intruders exchanged glances, sighed and then Marco introduced himself:
"First division commander of the Whitebeard army, Marco the Phoenix."
Ace felt his jaw drop – the Phoenix was legendary. His powers were somewhat similar to Ace's, so he was quite effective in extermination of the undead. Why would anyone send someone as important as the Phoenix to drag him out of his hole was beyond Ace's understanding.
"Wow, definitely a big fish..." Ace said after coming out of his stupor. Unfortunately, he was heard.
"WHERE'S A BIG FISH?" Luffy launched himself at Ace like a cannon ball, taking his brother down before anyone could react.
"Over there..." Ace groaned, pointing to the Phoenix from his crater.
"MEAT!" Luffy yelled again, jumped on the blond intruder and tried to bite him. Luckily Sabo got there on time to pry their younger brother before he bit anyone.
"Lu, how about you go get us a croc?" Sabo smartly redirected Luffy's attention before anyone mistook him for a flesh-eating zombie.
"Meat, yay!" Luffy sped away to the river.
"Are you alive?" Sabo asked with a smile, standing above Ace's crater.
"No, I'm one of those undead morons. Give me a hand."
"Up you go," the blond brother helped Ace to his feet and turned to the intruders. "Come. We'll figure out what to do with you tomorrow."
There. To finish my thought from the beginning of the drabble - I think that The Walking Dead show sucks. I'll stick to zombie movies, thank you very much.
Cya,
~Rhe.
