Thrilled to see a new follow for the story :)
And thanks to Awsme Grl & the Guest for your reviews! Glad you both enjoyed and I hope this chapter is a good bit of humor too :)
I do not own One Piece - that is property of Eiichiro Oda
Chapter 9: PX-4
"How was he able to fire that from his mouth?!" Usopp wailed as he was yanked by Franky to cover behind a building's corner.
"That's a beam…" Franky noted before turning to Brook who was just lying on the ground. "Just what the hell do you think you're doing?" the cyborg asked with slight irritation.
"Playing dead," the skeletal musician deadpanned but Luffy's voice made him spring to action.
"Just stay out of the way!" the rubbery captain ordered before turning to the other members of the Monster Trio. "Zoro! Sanji"
The first mate already had his hands on his swords, ready for action while the chef lit up a fresh cigarette. The three's combined attacked however, while it pushed the hulking man back, did not seem to bring him pain. He only gritted his teeth but Luffy frowned in annoyance. "Yeah they got him!" Nami shouted from the background but Luffy only turned his head in irritation towards his other crewmates.
"Stay behind cover," Luffy ordered his friends. "But be ready in case he does get past us!"
Robin agreed with her captain's cautious attitude. "If the opponent really is a Shichibukai, they won't go down just like that, even if Captain-san is getting stronger."
"So Zoro," Luffy asked as he cracked his knuckles. The three of them were staring at the building that they had knocked Kuma into. "Does he really seem that different? Like maybe he has a twin or something?"
"That could be a possibility," Sanji started before frowning. "But that's so stupidly rare that it's impossible!"
"There's no way it's the real Kuma." Zoro reasoned but he saw a curious glint in his captain's eyes. So Luffy suspected that he was a fake too? "The real one would have avoided our attacks and stuff. He also would not let himself get hit like an amateur." Luffy nodded as he processed the information.
"Did you notice anything else besides the lack of shockwaves?" Sanji asked as he held his cigarette between his fingers, twirling it nervously.
"No paw pads," Zoro stated so simply that it felt like a stupid observation to him.
"Don't take that tone, Zoro." The green haired swordsman raised an eyebrow at Luffy. "Any distinctive feature a devil fruit user has is useful to know." Zoro and Sanji stared at each other in wonder before Luffy continued. "If there are fakes of this Kuma guy walking around, that's a big problem."
Robin giggled at her captain's words despite their grim nature. "Unintentional pun or not, Captain-san has a point. Knowing the resources of the World Government and the marines in general, I'd wager if this one is a fake, there could be more."
"Did you use the Black Den Den Mushi again?" Sentomaru scowled over the snails. Admiral Kizaru looked around sheepishly as if any of the pirates would talk about his goof up to a marine before shrugging.
None of them would care anyway. It'd be something funny to tell back at Marineford. "I guess I was," Kizaru began before Sentomaru did cut him off.
"Damn it, that's only for intercepting communications!" Sentomaru scolded him again before finally sighing as the jovial admiral began to laugh more.
"It's nice to hear from you too," Kizaru smirked as he looked at the ruins around him. Basil Hawkins was stirring weakly, straining his ears to hear what the admiral could possibly be discussing on a Den Den Mushi. The magic user just had to know what he saw in the cards.
"Anyways," the axe wielder huffed in defeat. "We have those troublemaking Supernova still in the area but you also have your task of dealing with Straw Hat Luffy…"
"It is very interesting," Kizaru smirked as an amused glint entered his eyes. He looked over at Basil Hawkins who flinched immediately. "You weren't listening to me, were you hmmm?" the admiral asked with a chuckle as he held up a finger to the reader of fortunes. "Bye bye now."
"Shit Zoro!" Luffy cried as a beam of light zapped out of the ruins of the building and hit him in the chest. "Are you able to move?" the rubbery captain asked with concern but behind him, Sanji was in a full blown panic.
Shitty swordsman's injuries still aren't recovered, he scowled around his cigarette. Hell, it must be hard for him just to see that Shichibukai standing up again…
A faint clapping of hooves alerted everyone however as Chopper decided to strike against the Kuma lookalike while its back was turned. The doppelganger merely stared at the zoan blankly and decided to reach for Chopper but Franky intervened. "Guys, we gotta be careful!" Luffy shouted but he was becoming quickly concerned that panic was setting in.
Franky however was punched back after he tried a few jabs to make sure Chopper got away. Robin quickly acted however, crossing her arms to create a net for the cyborg to fall into safely. "Close combat is no good," Usopp wailed as he reached for some throwing weapons.
Luffy however was nervous for several reasons. The technical second best fighter in the crew was severely injured but the combined efforts of the best three was unable to immediately fell the facsimile Kuma. Brook had the idea of possibly striking from above but his cane sword was dislodged in the Kuma's shoulders. The man thing looked up at the skeleton music blankly and opened his mouth, launching a laser beam. "I'm going to die!" Brook whined before tilting his head. "Oh wait…" Usopp however intervened with a series of explosives. "That was so scary that I almost…"
"Something's wrong with the Kuma!" Chopper wailed as he looked at Luffy, who had lately become super cool in his eyes, for guidance.
"Luffy! There's no way my explosions took him out!" Usopp protested as the pirate captain looked at the sniper curiously.
It wouldn't kill Usopp to have confidence in his abilities but it's nice for him to be modest for once I suppose, Luffy thought with a sigh. "I think he ate one of them," Luffy pointed out as he thought he saw it may have gone into the thing's mouth but he was not certain.
"It looked that way to me," Franky confirmed as he tilted his sunglasses. "He looks like a modified human like me so he still bleeds and has machinery that can be shorted out."
Nami had an idea and decided to attack from a distance with some artificial lightning but the Shichibukai imitator spotted. "Nami, take cover!" Luffy ordered before glancing at Robin who nodded back as she crossed her arms to allow her powers to manifest.
Two pairs of arms, composed of smaller limbs, appeared next to the fake Kuma's head, causing steam and smoke to emit from his head then they quickly struck him. "He self destructed!" Usopp proclaimed while Robin allowed a small smirk to grace her face.
"Not quite but…"
"I've got a storm warning for you," taunted Nami as she held onto her Climatact with confidence. "Thunder Lance Tempo!" she declared as she struck the man with a massive bolt of lightning to the chest.
"That worked rather…" Brook started before Luffy had a chilling feeling struck his mind.
"Everyone move, he's going haywire!" the rubber pirate captain declared as he quickly grabbed Nami with his arm to pull her out of immediate danger. Chopper and Usopp quickly got out of the heat of battle just for Sanji to decide to spice it up.
"If he loses his head…" the chef darkly proclaimed as he let his foot heat up.
"Pass him to me, swirly!" Zoro proclaimed as he tied his bandana firmly onto his head.
"Stupid shitty swordsman," Sanji grumbled as he kicked the fake Kuma to the first mate.
"Franky," Luffy called to the cybernetic shipwright. He raised a vibrant eyebrow as he looked at his captain. "How much damage do you think it'll take?"
"He's hanging by a wire," Franky quickly assessed. "One last good attack…"
"Understood," Luffy stated after biting his thumb. He saw Zoro finish his attack on the imposter but looked rather winded afterwards. Luffy quickly bit his thumb to initiate his Third Gear attack. With the arm of a giant, he quickly punched the fake Shichibukai into the ground before immediately flying around as a shrunken, chibi form of himself. "Damn it all," Luffy scowled as he looked down at himself. "I hate when this happens."
Looking around, Sanji was wheezing around the cigarette he was so determined to light while Zoro was clenching his side painfully. "This bastard," Franky gasped weakly as he reached for a cola to replenish his energy. "Should be stopped now…"
"It looks like it," Usopp stated as he contemplated going up to the fake and poking it with his foot to be safe.
"It's just damn creepy," Nami scowled as she tightly held her Climatact out of paranoia. "He looks like how he did when he's moving around. How do we know for sure that we stopped him?"
"Yeah, he is a bit weird," Luffy admitted as he toddled around on his smaller legs towards the fake Shichibukai. Usopp began to laugh at him before the smaller Luffy kicked him in the shin. "If you have energy to laugh, you have energy to fight," the pirate captain scolded his nakama.
"No way can I fight again," Usopp wheezed as he collapsed on the ground away from Luffy.
"Maybe instead of fighting," Chopper suggested weakly as he was unsure how this suggestion would be taken by the rest of his crew. "We should run?"
Luffy's inner warrior and no doubt, Sanji and Zoro's loved a good challenge but the captain hesitated about stating that fact out loud. Just this battle tired out his crew but at the same time, it was a good experience for what was to come. Robin's words however added additional insight. "Anyone we think we can defeat that opposes us, we should. If they'll come after us anyway, it's best to get that out of the way at least.
"Agreed so anyone stronger we bail ok everyone?" Luffy ordered his crew. Sanji wanted to protest but a look at the lovely ladies of the crew made him nod immediately in compliance. Zoro snorted in annoyance but said nothing.
"Whatever… so who is this guy anyway?" the first mate asked with annoyance.
Franky sighed as he began to think about his own body's mixed origins. "A modified human could be someone who looks just like Bartholomew Kuma such as a twin or just another lookalike. After all…" He glanced at Robin who had arrived at the same conclusion he did. "I don't see it possible to create another human."
"That'd be creepy," Luffy spoke out as his body finally popped out of the childlike form it shoved him into after his Third Gear. "Imagine if a famous pirate or even a Yonko had a duplicate of themselves running around." Shudders went around the crew but then Luffy spoke up yet again. "And what if it's a marine official like an admiral?"
Aokiji… Robin shivered instinctively upon recalling the cool headed marine.
"It'd be easy to figure out if Aokiji would be a fake though. Just have Robin or Nami's chest in his face to see if he reacts," Luffy pointed out innocently but while Robin chuckled softly with a slight blush, Nami completely turned red faced.
"I am NOT shoving my cleavage into an admiral's face to see if he's real or fake," the navigator snarled as she shook Luffy quickly. The rubber man's head bobbed back and forth before she finally tired and released him.
"So Nami…" Luffy began in a more tentative tone. "If it would save a nakama's life, would you do it?"
The blush had not fully receded but instead of her stammering a retort, Sanji swooped to the rescue. "Would you really ask something like that of Nami-swaaaaan?"
"I would," Nami said in a small, almost scared voice. "If it saved one of you guys, I'd do it in a heartbeat!" Luffy smiled and put a reassuring hand on Nami's shoulder.
"I'd do the same if anyone wanted to see it," he smiled. Nami however just shook her head with a sigh.
"You're being stupid Luffy and no, you will not try to make it either!" Nami ordered her captain as he was about to take a breath and try it to make his crew laugh.
"Anyway," Luffy chuckled as he turned to Sanji who, after cooling down, went back to investigating the fake Shichibukai. "Find anything, Sanji?"
"It says PX-4 on his neck," the chef muttered as he used his foot to move the thing's head slightly.
"That must mean at least three more," Luffy stated as he slumped against a nearby mangrove root. "Ok look, I know we didn't expect to fight so hard immediately off the bat but at least we can get stronger as a crew. First… where do we rest? We can't stay at Rayleigh or Shakky's."
"We're too exposed now," Sanji pointed out as he lit up a new cigarette, having crushed the last one on the fake Kuma's chest. "Almost any foe around that one's power could take us on now if they stumbled upon us."
"I'd want just a little longer but…" Luffy started before he heard a very angry voice.
"You assholes! This really pisses me off!"
"Another enemy," Luffy shouted as he clenched his fist wearily. "Everyone, get ready!"
A couple of large objects soared through the air, finally landing in front of the Straw Hat crew. One of them was a rather large man with a bowl cut and an unusual outfit. Across his shoulder rested a battleaxe while behind him was yet another thing that looked like Kuma. "Poor PX-4," the man sadly touched the head of the cyborg. "It costs almost as much as it takes to make a battleship in order for one of these to be produces you know," he informed the crew who just stared back at him with varying expressions. "Ah, Straw Hat Luffy. Uncle Kizaru is looking for you,"
