Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. And will we ever know if Luffy's new dubbed attacks sound better? Seriously, they better put in bazooka instead of double barrel when Wiper comes with that cannon of his.

Ch 10

SNIZT! Metal wires crossed with scythe arm, as sparks flew through the air, slicing and tearing towards the others throats as Alto fought against five mantises. He was clearly getting closer and closer to Antoine, although the bugs were now tearing holes in the floor to disorient or attack his feet. His 3 Finger Thrust, however, poked smaller holes to impale and cut apart those who would cheaply attack him from below.

"You'll have to do better than that, my dear captain. From all over the world, I had captured insects of the highest caliber for my collection, taking in hundreds of each species. Because of this, I know that my bounty will grow by 700 percent when I overthrow the World Government!" Antoine laughed, rallying the bug armies to push forward, renewing their spirit and morale.

"Who the hell do you think you are, you piece of trash! Double Hand Spiral!" Several walking sticks and mantises were struck down as a wireframe lance drilled through them, turning their organs into a bloody pulp as it spun. "The World Government will never fall to you! Not even if you have the control of every bug on the planet and Pluton!"

"Heh, so you can do other things than slash stuff with your strings. If you truly want to face my full power as a substitute captain of the seas, then come down to the center ring if you dare! MUAHAHAHAHA!" Antoine said, bursting into manicial laughter as he jumped onto a passing ladybug twice his size and ordered it to hover down to the ground surface at the 1st floor of the building.

"From the highest point of the building to the lowest floor. Man, I hate this guy for being a diabolical fruitcake." Alto muttered, as blood dripped a bit from his wounds. "But first I have to deal with my injuries." Leaning one arm in, he tore off one of his sleeves with his own teeth, then used it as a temporary cast to cut off the bleeding with both hands. "There we go...now for some slicing and dicing!" He yelled, throwing his hands wide in back of him and then threw them forward. "Double Hand Rake!"

The insects in front of him were cut horizontally, despite their hard skin and muscle tissue, but some like the Cockroaches maintained despite losing body parts and charged in, only for Alto to throw them over the edge. He still got a few cuts though doing it, but they didn't draw blood. Bounding over the dead bodies, he continued to dodge oncoming rams from different kinds of flying and jumping insects, but took time to split apart those with poison abilities and bone-ripping jaws and appendages.

"Die already, geez!" He said, bashing a massive earthworm with a circular jaw repeatedly as he went down a set of stairs to the next floor, causing it to combust into purple goo upon him. Getting annoyed, he slowly wiped his face of the gunk and split the stairs apart as soon as he got to the floor, sending many land crawlers to their deaths.

To make a long story short, he had rinsed and repeated the process of exterminating bugs and going down the floors, using all sorts of weird techniques that would be shown in later chapters. That is, until he managed to reach the first floor with a large amount of demonic bugs chasing him with a hunger for blood. At this time, he had taken a few more cuts, his left arm was worn out and he felt rather tired and thirsty. "Had enough yet, scum?" He asked, twirling around on one foot to slash the ladder, tearing apart the grounded insects coming behind him.

"Hardly. This is the best time to unleash the strongest of my insects upon you! Look down." Antoine said, snickering through his mask.

Alto did so, realizing that the dirty floor was now blanketed with small black dots that were crawling all over. And that he had stepped on a few, which in turn caused a eeric hissing around him. Antoine's legs were currently being coated with the small bugs, spiraling around his pants and clinging to the hairs on the skin.

"Want to know WHY out of the Red Dwarf pirates that I am the only one who is normal sized?" He said, sneering as the bugs continued to climb all over him.

"Not really, no. In fact, I want you to stay in that position for a moment." Alto answered truthfully, reeling some of his bug-stained strings for a direct long ranged slash to decapitate the jerk in one hit. It didn't matter if they were visible or not, there was no way that punk could move well with his legs draped around a mound of bugs.

"It's because I never got anywhere in life thanks to my condition. Everywhere I went for a job interview, I got turned down because I didn't look important or smart enough. Even the navy turned me away because I didn't look healthy enough even to be a scientist. However, the Red Dwarf leader chose me because I wanted revenge on those who place glass ceilings over the minorities and those with racial ethnic views. For unlike people, my Eciton Island Army Ants see everyone as a equal, able to share the food and work together. And soon you'll be the first to fall against the power of the insect kingdom!" Antoine laughed, as his body began to morph with the ants covering him, reshaping his body into different sections.

His waist narrowed to become a thorax, his chest was encased in a thick mesosoma exoskeleton that would withstand a cannon shell and his hips and thighs shifted into a heavy gaster. A second set of legs formed from the numerous ants to keep Antoine from falling over, as the exoskeleton increased density and flexibility for him. His hands turned into large hooked claws which could take on Alto's strings with ease, and his covered head had been swallowed up and reformed into a ant's as well, leaving only the fedora hat poked through by the antenna, as the bone-crushing mandibles dripped corrosive acid onto the floor. "See this, captain? THIS is the true power of the insect kingdom! With numerous species of ants under my command, and hundreds of billions of bus worldwide, I will be invincible!"

"Why are you saying all this! I keep telling you that I'm not interested! So shut up!" Alto shouted back, charging right at Antoine and slipping a bit since some of the ants were still on the floor. "Twin Finger Scissors!"

The strings were caught before they could divide the rambling madman in two, then were yanked so hard that Alto flew towards Antione head-first. "Had you forgotten that ants can carry ten times their body weight? Currently I can as well, making me capable of moving around a ton if needed. You, on the other hand, barely weigh anything to me! Anthill Punch!" Enlarging his fist to epic size, he let Alto have it which basically sent him crashing into a nearby wall and cratering it a few inches.

"Man...that hurts. Guess I have to do this short-range for now." Alto said, not actually looking healthy but still getting up. Dusting off his shirt, he noticed the large amounts of bugs were just standing around. "Oy, what's up with the audience?"

The antennas bounced up and down, showing a sign of glee. "Please, my insects know better than to interfere with my fight. Once I kill you, I'll throw your carcass towards them to be devoured and turned into food for their young."

"Okay...whatever. It's creepy but you're just weird." Alto said, as he twirled the wires around his hands to create wireframe boxing gloves. "Double Hand Gloves."

"I see now...only when you state that both hands are used it's when you create a object with them." Antoine's multiple eyes blinked, as his arms lengthened as more ants were applied. The hands reformed into odd-looking pistols made of ants. "However, that would only work if you maintain their form and not tighten them, otherwise your hands would be sliced up instead. So why not be a good navy man and just die for me? Bullet Ant Barrage!" With that, he launched a full-out scale of ants purposely called "Bullet Ants" towards Alto, each armed with a small stinger filled with non-lethal poison.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Geez, that stings! Ow!" Alto said painfully, charging head-on against the ant's ruthless stings. He didn't care that the welts would keep hurting or that they might clung to him and bite his skin, all he wanted was to kick the jerk's butt. "Slicing Flurry!" He said, now a foot away from his opponent as he unleashed one jab after another into the chest, making large cuts to tear up the ants formed the armor. The impact also caused Antoine to heave, bleeching saliva on Alto's head which caused the captain to pause in disgust. That pause was all he needed as the gaster turned around to hit him with the force of a minivan going 20 mph.

He skidded on his butt several feet, got up and closed in again, even as Antoine shifted the guns back into claws which shot towards him by telescoping. As a captain of the navy, he knew that it would be bad if a pirate knocked him out here and now. He had a family to back to, and a dream that he planned on achieving. There was no way in heck this punk was going to take him down without a fight. "Double Hand Max-Glove...!" Clenching his hands together without forcing them too close (doing so could damage the palms), he arced his arms under his shoulder as he ran straight at Antoine for another head-on attack, swerving out of the way of the rapid claw punches that Antoine was throwing, ripping the area around them apart.

"INFLATION!" He roared as he came in close, swinging both arms in to deliver a powerful punch. Only it wasn't a normal wireframe glove anymore, but a colossal 6 foot wireframe fist made out of the numerous metal strings which expanded upon impact with Antoine's chest.

"Uffffffffgggggghhhhhhhhh!" Antoine yelled out, as parts of his ant armor cracked under pressure. Half of his the ant face split, tearing the gas mask he was wearing. Alto looked on in shock as the man crashed through the wall, rebounding by sacrificing his extra two legs to stand up straight. "Heahaheahea! This is great! This is how I should feel all the time!" Antoine laughed, exposing his true face to Alto. His lips were swollen, he had 2 boils on his forehead as well as white warts on his nose and his eyes were bright yellow, not even close to a human's pupil. His teeth were crooked on one side, yellow and his gums were a raw red color. His nose was bent and currently bleeding, as well as his exposed chest which was cut from the powerful attack.

"This is the face I look at every day of my life, captain Alto! But soon I'll make your face so mangled that not even your next-of-kin would recognize you! And soon there will be no humans to make fun of me ever again!" Ants from all over the floor reclimbed on Antoine to regenerate the armor and repaired the broken pieces, as he held out both hands and opened them. "Ant Swarm Weaver!" He called out, as two jet blast streams of ants shot from his palms arcing out to the left and right of Alto, in which the front parts shifted into large ant mandibles. "Like the deadly weaver ants, I will pull your arms out of your sockets and then cut you in half! This is the end!"

"I don't even know what the end means! 8 Finger Baton!" Alto yelled out, retracting the strings and spun 4 on each hand, as the two opposing forces prepared to clash for the final time.

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"It's good that I ran into you guys. How are the others faring?" Prelude said, addressing 4 Navy Seamen with large sniper rifles hung over their backs.

"Well...we managed to free a good chunk of the civilian population. They claim that the pirates have been feeding the elderly and the young to large insects of some kind. I don't know what kind of bug can do that." The tall, skinny one with a buzzcut said, known as Rick. He was the inflitration and trap tester.

"Those of the pirates that survived have managed to escape by long canoes can can hold up to 8 at a time. We can assume that is how they came here to begin with. I had used my sniper scope, but the main ship is not around." A man with wavy green hair and a dimple on his chin said coldly, his stature was so thin that one can see his ribs. He was Jameson, the tracker and pointman.

"Umm...the treasury of the village has been broken into, and we had piled all the dead bodies up. I set them on fire just as the handbook said since we cannot afford to let any possums slip past." Moe, the slightly chubby but well-built one said. His job was to keep track of ammunition and cannon trajectory, as well as repairing the sniper rifles.

"We will escort this person to the boat as you command, my liege. But still, we missed you SO MUCH!" Jacob, the dark-skinned platoon leader said, crying as he hugged Prelude with his muscular arms tattoo emblemed with the faces of dozens of pirates that he shot down over the past year.

"Here, here. I was only going to be gone for a week, but those pirates basically locked me in a cell and forced me to eat the mold on the walls and rats that crawled in. Heck, I once ate one of the insects since they're high in protein, although it caused the rest to stay far, far away from me." Prelude said, patting her protege on the back as she turned to face the tower. "Men, what I plan to do is exterminate all lifeforms surrounding the tower in under a half hour. There may be more pirates who may interfere, but thanks to the ammo boxes of extra flares, I should take out a small army of them. Once I give the signal, commence "Operation: Toppel" to take out the tower since my flares and saw wheels would be ineffective against the transmitter tower's reinforced steel plating. Is that clear to you all?"

"Yes, sir! I mean, madam! I mean...you know what we mean, Squad Leader Prelude!" All four said in sync, sweating bullets as they realized their mistake and stumbled to get it right.

"Good, good. Dismissed, and make sure that the Professor gets a comfortable room, preferably in Alto's office for the time being." She turned around, only to see that the four had yanked Derrick off his feet and ran like crazy to the nearest lifeboat. "Okay...that makes my job a little easier..." She said, sweatdropping at their odd antics.

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With that, she ran down the stone streets bypassing the civilains who were lazily coming out of their houses and homes, finally able to see the clouds shining rays of sunlight down on the island. However, she also heard the screaming of adults being mauled behind her in which she turned her head to one side. 12 Pillbugs, big as leopards, were giving chase with their multiple legs speeding them up, their feelers sensing her footsteps.

"What the heck? Is every insect on this island a giant?" Prelude yelled, now frightened out of her mind as she sped up faster. Not that she had a fear of bugs, but because of the venomous smell that they were emitting. To her, pillbugs were a nuisance where she once lived, as one can just roll them up and flick them, but the smell on the fingers would take days to clean up.

Getting out a flare and loading it into her customized revolver, she spun around a full 360, auto-targeting the lead pillbug with one eye closed to measure distance and accuarcy. "Flaring Shot Burst!" She called out, as the revolver spun and fired off the flare at twice the speed needed. The pillbug was thrown back upon impact, but because of it's hardened exoskeleton, the shot barely melted a foot of it's armored shell. Of course, since the skin was damaged and he was flipped over, the other pillbugs saw this opportunity to dogpile their comrade and eat it awhile it was on it's back to get at the exposed flesh.

'Okay...that should buy me a moment or two. Still...my flares won't work against those creatures, and I only have 4 more saw wheels in my inventory.' Prelude thought, looking at her weapon's pouch by her left thigh. The saw wheels were basically circular sawblades shaped like chakrams for throwing, but they were only made out of iron substance. However, their unique talent was when the sun was out in which the waxed surface would reflect the light and blind those in her path, but it wouldn't work with the cloud cover overhead which was still striking the tower with lightning.

Skidding into a alleyway, she quickly broke a window and jumped inside a apartment building. She could already hear the pillbugs regrouping and searching for her, their thirst for human blood undenied. Moving a couch on it's side to bar the window, she blasted a round to ignite it on fire, then ran out the door into a long hallway of doors. She made sure to close the door behind her as well, as she knew the Pillbugs were coming after her. 'Staircase, staircase...ah, here it is.' Finding a spiraling staircase, she walked upwards, hearing the sound of pillbugs being burned as others climbed over them to cut down the door with their pincers.

In a few minutes, she managed to reach the rooftop, breathing heavily due to the smoke filling up the corridors down below. She doubted the smoke would effect the pillbugs though since they were used to not breathing like humans. They were scrambling along the staircase downstairs, their numbers growing by the minute and their combined stink had increased a hundredfold.

"I freaking hate these things!" Prelude huffled, running across the edge of the roof as she began to plan ahead. The nearest rooftop was only 10 feet from the edge, but she knew that part of the gutter rigging could be used as a spring board if she applied enough weight on it and leapt hard. Behind her, the door was beginning to give away as numerous small termites joined their allies to weaken the wooden ceiling and doorway.

'Almost there...time to speed it up! If I time it just right, I'll clear myself to the next roof and go towards the center of town.' Prelude thought, quickening each step as she neared the end of the roof towards the nearest apartment, unaware of the cracks spreading beneath her feet.

She shot a few more times, taking out those who managed to penerate the surface by burning the small head underneath the armor, causing them to curl up as they were set on fire. Her flare bursts were rather accurate as she ran, avoiding broken tiles that the Pillbugs were cutting through as she managed to approach the gutter at top speed. But as soon as she jumped upon the gutter, the screws were already half-chewed by rust and decay, causing her and the gutter to tip over ever so slightly. Her mouth hung open and her eyes displayed fear, as every muscle in her body became rigid and tense, unable to move if she tried.

As she began to plummet 5 stories below towards a street full of vicious, man-eating pillbugs (the gutter impaled a few as it came down first), she could almost see the face of her beloved in the sky, a dark-haired man with white stripes, with his bleeding empty eyes covered over by a blindfold. "Nocturne...where are you?" She whispered, tears gently flying upwards by the rising air as gray darkness consumed her entirely...

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Double Hand Spiral: Wireframe technique that can get tangled, requires all 10 wires as it turns into a lance. Short range weapon.

Double Hand Rake: By crossing both hands in front with thrusting the wires, it either pushes opponents to the side or cuts them up. Not a wireframe attack.

Eciton Island Army Ants: Extremely vicious, but work together to take down large foes. They can even combine to create larger ants or merge with a human to increase their fighting ability.

Anthill Punch: Made of a few hundred Army Ants, getting hit would be the same as a hit-and-run by a car. Also, because it can expand, it is hard to avoid and can sometimes engulf a victim if grabbed. If that happens, the ants would no doubt spread on the person's body and begin to bite down hard on the flesh until the person is nothing but bones.

Double Hand Gloves: Alto's explosive technique, uses boxing tactics to fight. Each hit also can cut the opponent on impact, but is delicate as it can easily backfire and destroy the hands.

Double Hand Max-Glove Inflation: By adding more strings into the attack by putting both hands together, the gloves merge to become one large 3-D wireframe boxing glove which expands outwards to 10 feet, dealing heavy damage and cuts the opponent severely depending on armor. However, it cannot be used again, due to the strings getting tangled.

Ant Swarm Weaver: A three-pronged attack made of hundreds of ants, as it is capable of ripping limbs and tearing the body to shreds.

8 Finger Baton: The strongest defensive move in Alto's arsenal, as two of the strings are tangled. By spinning the wires, he creates two protective domes around him, but the timing must be perfect. However, if a small object got through between revolutions and was dangerous, Alto would be caught off guard as a result. Sneak attacks from behind also is a problem for this technique.

Flaring Shot Burst: Single shot, but twice as dangerous if no other flares are loaded. Targets weak spots in armor that she could identity given time to aim and adjust to terrain. Can also be used to signal for help.