Monkey D. Dexter: I just made it like that cuz in my mind, the Straw Hats hadn't met Franky or Brook yet when they met Rico.
Rico VS The Count! Locke, Hurry Up! Time Is Running Out!
"RRRRAAAAWWWW!" The Count howled and bared his fangs, ripping his cloak off.
"..." Rico stared at Dracula. "...EEEPPPP!" He ran screaming around the dance hall, Dracula in hot pursuit.
"Haa..." Locke sighed, and started to move towards the two running around the room.
"Locke, wait-" Tresa clutched his sleeve. She reached up and slipped off his mask and hat. She stretched up on her tip toes and gently kissed the pale blonde haired man on the lips. Locke's gray eyes widened, and slowly closed his eyes, and kissed her back.
"Promise me you won't do anything stupid, like last time." Tress smiled at him.
"Ahaha," Locke scratched the back of his head. "I won't."
She kissed him again, quickly. "Go get 'em tiger."
Vitaly clenched his jaw. They reminded him of his old life. He stared at Tresa's eyes filled with love and worry as she watched the blonde haired man try to catch the bouncing boy with the black bandana and the raging vampire. Vitaly turned around, rubbing his eyes. He didn't want to see any more of the girl and Locke's interactions. It reminded him too much of the life he could have had.
"Katto Katto no Axe Kick!" Rico shouted as he brought his foot down onto the vampire. "Ah-?!"
"Heheheh," Vlad chuckled deeply as he held the boy's heel inches from his face, his hands bleeding from Rico's Cut Cut Fruit. "Boy. You overestimate your power. You think you can defeat an immortalis?"
"Fang!" The Count bit down on Rico's leg. The boy yelled in pain as he struggled to get his leg out of the vampire's grip. Vitaly spun around. Vlad wouldn't be holding back with Rico, which meant that his venom would already be flowing through the black bandana's bloodstream.
Vitaly turned to the brunette quickly. "Your captain needs to be injected with one of my antidotes. Can you help me?"
Tresa looked startled that the vampire spoke to her. Now that she heard his voice closer, he had a slight British accent. "Y-Yeah, is Rico in trouble?"
"Do you see that?" Vitaly pointed to the vein jumping in Rico's forehead and jaw as he spun around and retaliated for another attack. "That's a sign that the poison is already affecting him."
"Locke!" Tresa called out. Locke nodded as he unsheathed his axes. He was going to have to take on the Count. Tresa cupped her hand and blew into a few suits of armor. They jolted to life and saluted the girl.
"Help him out." She pointed to Rico as he was obviously tiring easily. They nodded, and marched towards the immortalis and his opponent.
Rico cursed under his breath. He didn't expect the Count to be this strong. "Bat's Claws!" Rico raised his leg as the Count flung his hands at Rico. "Katto Katto no Block!"
Rico blocked with his injured foot and grimaced with pain. Four suits of armor stood by him and raised their swords at the Count. The Count glared and vanished into a cloud of bats. "Bat Scatter!"
The bats flew around everywhere, flapping their wings around Rico's head, blocking his view. "Ah! You idiot bats! Get...outta...my...way...!"
The suits of armor swung their swords around, trying to hit whatever came their way. Rico blinked woozily. He was starting to see double. Rico rubbed his eyes in the whirlwind of bats. "Ungh..."
Rico collapsed onto the floor. Vitaly and Tresa rushed into the mix and scooped Rico's body up and ran up the stairs towards Vitaly's lab. A lone bat was chasing them, screeching and howling. It slowly and grotesquely started to turn into the Count's body, but was suddenly slammed into the wall with a dull THUD by a silver, gleaming axe. Locke was missing one axe, the other in his left hand.
"No you don't." He growled.
"Vitaly...I...can't-!" Tresa gasped.
She couldn't keep up with the vampire's inhuman speed. Tresa was very fit for a girl her age, but Vitaly was going way too fast. Vitaly sighed and jogged back towards her, Rico's body in his arms.
"Get on my back." He knelt down and exposed his back towards her. Tresa gingerly climbed onto his back and clutched his powerful shoulders. "Ready?"
Tresa nodded fearfully.
"Alright," Vitaly shifted his weight. "Here we go!"
He sped down the hallway with a screaming Tresa on his back.
"Vampire!" She yelled in his ear. "This is wayyy tooooo faaaassssstttttt!"
Vitaly only smiled and went faster. He slid across the carpeted floor and around the corner, into his room. He dumped Tresa and laid Rico on the surgery table. Tresa breathed in slow, deep breaths.
"We...are never...doing that...again." Tresa gasped.
Vitaly ignored her shudders and ripped off Rico's pants. He glanced at the pink checkered boxers in momentary confusion and turned to his syringes. Vitaly urgently flipped through them, the clinks of glasses ringing in the silent room. "No...no...no...no!" Vitaly roared, dumping the contents of the case onto the floor. "Where is it?!"
Tresa reached out a hand towards the fallen items as Vitaly rummaged through another case, throwing bottles over his shoulder in his haste to look for the antidote. Tresa's delicate fingers lifted a small syringe filled with a purple liquid. "Is this it?"
Vitaly whipped around, his shaggy hair flying. "Yes! Oh yes, thank God!"
He slid to his knees and lifted the syringe out of Tresa's hand, giving her a jubilant kiss on the cheek. "You're amazing. Thank you."
Tresa blinked. "Yeah...Just go stab that in Rico."
She followed him as he walked around the table, positioning the syringe over the ragged bite wound. Vitaly exhaled deeply and prepared to stab it in when-
"NNAAARRRGGHHH!"Rico's eyes flashed open, the gold now a dark red. He flailed around the table, slapping Tresa in the face and kicking Vitaly in the stomach.
"Girl!" Vitaly threw the syringe at Tresa. She barely caught it before it pierce her skin. "You're going to have to put it in him."
"What?" Tresa looked up, rubbing her cheek.
"I can only hold him down for a limited time!" Vitaly struggled with the flailing Rico. "He's too strong! I don't understand why he's reacting to the venom like this!"
Tresa slid around the surgical table and with a shaking hand, lifted the syringe.
"That's the way." Vitaly said soothingly. "Just put it in one of the puncture wounds."
Tresa's hand shook like crazy, but she inserted the syringe in and squeezed the plug. Rico screamed, a terrible, throat renching scream that ripped through the air. Tresa gave Vitaly a nervous look, but he nodded his head. "It's okay. That's whats supposed to happen...Speaking of which, we need to fix you up as well."
They both watched silently as Rico's eyelids slowly fluttered open.
"Axe Hack!" Locke snarled and slashed at Vlad's hands. He scored a slice and Vlad's hand was lopped cleanly off. He screamed in pain and hid his bloody stump of a hand, waiting until it regrew.
"You idiot boy." The Count hissed.
"Heh." Locke grinned, wiping off the blood from his forehead.
"Silent Scream!" Vlad announced with a curled lip, looking mockingly at Locke. He opened his mouth in a slient scream of rage, lifting his arms out to the side and raising his face to the sky.
"Ahhhhahhhhhh!" Locke dropped to his knees, letting his precious axes slip out of his hands as he brought up his hands to his ears. The Count saw this and smiled, kicking Locke's axes away. Locke rolled on the ground with pain. His eardrums felt like they were about to burst. Vlad crowed above him, smiling wide, fangs bared, ready to slice into his tender neck when-
"Arrooooww!" A wolf's howl cut into the air and Vlad's attack was stopped. Locke was still on the ground, reeling after the aftereffects.
A timber wolf jumped into the air and tackled the vampire, snapping it's jaws viciously. Many more wolves of assorted colors followed. Vlad threw off the timber wolf, ripped the throat out of a pure white one, and slashed into a black one, yet many more followed. A lone, black she wolf who looked like the head of the pack placed her muzzle on the blonde haired youth's head, willing him to get up. Locke's gray, wolf-like eyes blinked up in pain at her.
"You smell like wolf." A female voice reverberated in his mind.
Locke's lip curled. "Is that supposed to be an insult?"
"No..." A chuckle came from her. "Take this. Fight Vlad with it."She rolled a wooden stake towards him. A stick? "You must stab where his heart should be with it. My wolves will be here to help you. "She padded silently away.
Locke watched her leave, and grasped the stake. He was going to kill himself a vampire.
Rico had his arm draped over Tresa and Vitaly's shoulders, breathing hard. There was sweat on his upper lip. This was quite hard. Vitaly had told him that his legs would be a bit shaky after he awoke from his half dead state, despite the fact that his legs were the most powerful thing on his body. Rico tripped as the walked slowly into the main dance hall and Vitaly quickly grabbed him by the shirt.
"You hanging in there?" He asked as he slung Rico's limp arm onto his shoulders. Rico nodded dumbly and pointed at the spectacle in front of them. Vitaly turned and dropped Rico. Tresa squeaked with protest as she caught the shorter boy. Vitaly stood, his mouth agape, showing the tips of his large fangs.
"Grandmother...?" He breathed as he watched Locke fight with the wolves, almost in sync with the lead wolf, a large black female with a single gray stripe.
"Locke-!" Tresa whispered fearfully, her hand on her mouth.
Locke blocked hit after hit from the Count as Vlad madly tore at the man.
"Heart Slasher!" Block. "Throat Ripper!" Blocked. "Mortal Mutilator!" Blocked again.
Vlad looked desperate now as his red eyes searched for a backdoor. Locke took this moment for a strike. Vlad saw him out of the corner of his eye and swung, but Locke easily ducked out of the way and drove the stake into his chest.
Vlad immediately froze in mid-snarl and looked down with wide eyes at the wooden stake in his chest. Locke let go of it, letting it stay dug deep into where his heart should've been beating. The wolves started to yip, jumping joyfully around Locke. Then it began. A terrible scream emitted from Vlad's mouth as he threw back his head in pain. His skin started to shrivel and peel off, exposing the sensitive muscle, and then beginning to show bone. Bit by bit the pieces of Count Vlad Dracula II started to rip off in a whirlwind, and after some time, his skeleton crumbled to the ground.
"Awwwoooo!" The wolves cheered and Locke grinned, panting with exhaustion. Vitaly looked stunned as the lead wolf approached him and turned into his Grandmother.
"I-I thought you'd been-" Vitaly stammered.
"Come here child." She smiled and opened her arms out wide. Vitaly rushed into her arms and let out a sob.
"Shhh," She stroked the vampire's hair. "It's alright child. He's dead now."
Grandmother Lupis turned and looked over Tresa and Rico. "Thank you. Thank you."
"Hehehe," Rico chuckled weakly. "It was all them." He pointed at Tresa and Locke.
Grandmother Lupis glanced at Tresa. "The Hunter has chosen a good mate."
Tresa assumed that she was talking about herself and Locke and immediately blushed a deep red.
"Hunter?" Vitaly questioned, looking up with red eyes.
"Yes," Grandmother Lupis turned to Locke now sitting amongst the wolves, acting like he was one of their own. "He reminds me of the Hunter whom I knew back when Vlad, my husband, was killed. Except that man is not the liar who the old Hunter was."
Grandmother Lupis tells what she can sense from Locke, and has a gift for the pirate crew!
Locke's Spirit, and Grandmother Lupis's Gift!
A/N: Sorry guys this chapter was kinda smashed up together...I'm kind of getting sick of Fright Town, one, because it's not Halloween anymore and I started thinking about this arc durning Halloween, and two, I just need Vitaly to join the godddamn crew already...Jesus...