Chapter 21: The Last Fight-Scythe vs. Blood!
Previously on One Piece: The Next Story- After defeating the powerful Castor, Maze and his friends felt as though they had finally won the war with the Falcone's, but with the arrival of the fourth Guardian, Duke Mason, a psychopathic Skypian that is out for blood, and went as far as to stab the downed Castor just for presenting what he called a pathetic sight, and killing his Boss just for talking. With Maze and Kal in no condition to fight, that left only Connie, who was still weary from her own battle. Connie had soon realized that Duke was not someone she could take on without being at her best, luckily Miles appeared before Duke could begin his attack, but Miles was not there to fight instead, while he started operating on Castor, he left fighting Duke to Franklin, who appeared out of nowhere brandishing a Scythe he called Shikama, now he and Duke are about to face off in a battle that will decide the fate of the war.
In front of the Falcone Mansion-
Franklin and Duke charged at each other with their weapons gripped tightly in their hands. Duke brought his Blood blade down on to Franklin who blocked the attack with the Shikama's handle. Franklin pushed Duke back with a kick to his gut, Franklin then swung Shikama nearly cutting Duke in half as narrowly avoided the attack, but regardless of his evasion there was still a small and shallow cut on Duke's abdomen, which was now visible through the cut on his coat.
You could see the look of anger on Duke's face as he looked down at his newly acquired wound and the tearing of his fur coat.
"You bastard! Do you have any idea how much I loved this coat" said Duke in a rage.
"I'm afraid I don't, but I must ask if you are going to stop to have a conversation every time I injure you, cause if so, then we are going to be talking quite a bit" said Franklin as he readied Shikama.
Franklin charged at Duke while he twirled Shikama on his right side, he then shot his Shikama down on Duke, but he avoided the attack of which left a mid size crack in the road. Duke took advantage of this and used a counter attack. Duke had landed near the dead body of Boss Falcone who was lying in a pool of his own blood, Duke motioned his hand over the Boss' blood, a small amount of the blood then moved to the tip of Duke's pointer finger it then became a perfect sphere.
"Blood bullet!" yelled Duke as he fired the blood at an astounding speed.
Franklin moved as fast as he could out of the way of the bullet but he was still nicked as it flew by him. Franklin looked relieved that he had dodged the attack but when he looked over at Duke he felt a bit uneasy by the strange smile on his face.
"I hope you don't think that was my only bullet. Blood Bullet: Rapid Fire!" said Duke.
Multiple spheres of blood started floating in front of Duke and as they appeared he fired them off at rapid speed. Franklin saw as they were coming at him, he started evading as many as they could but with everyone he dodged another two were sent at him, he jumped out of the way of the bullets as fast as he could while at the same time making sure that there was no one behind him that could be hit by them, but unfortunately one of the bullets found its mark and hit Franklin in his left arm.
"Ha, I knew you couldn't escape all of them" said Duke.
Franklin was still as a statue as he looked at the wound on his arm, as if he was petrified by fear, but anyone that could see his face knew that it wasn't fear that had kept him still. Out of nowhere everyone watching the fight felt a chill go down their spines, even Miles who's full attention was on Castor felt this sudden cold feeling.
Everyone there knew exactly what this sudden chill was; it was something they felt every time they entered a fight for their lives, it was killing intent, but something wasn't right, the killing intent coming off of Franklin, felt different from what they had previously felt from Duke. Duke's was like having someone threaten you with a knife to your throat, while Franklin's was more like someone having already killed you, as if there was no hope left.
As everyone looked at Franklin they saw the same grin that he always had, but his eyes were different, instead of the soft kind eyes he had before, they were now soulless and crazed.
"You hurt Andrew. You're going to regret that" said Franklin in a low monotone voice.
Franklin switched Shikama from his right hand over to his left, and shot a terrifying stare over to Duke.
Despite Duke's fondness for the kill, he couldn't help but feel as though he had just walked into a pool of sharks, but he was unwilling to just let himself be killed.
"You think I'm afraid of you, I've never lost a fight not since I was thrown out of my island to when I killed my first crew, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna lose to some nobody piece of shit like you. Blood Stream!" yelled Duke as he pulled all of the blood that was left in Boss Falcone and shot it at Franklin as a pressurized stream.
The stream sweped from left to right as Duke tried to hit Franklin. As Duke used the attack he found it difficult to hit Franklin due to him moving so quickly and ducking under or jumping over the stream as it got close, which Franklin wanted to avoid at all cost due to whatever was touched by the stream being cut in half.
But as everyone watched Franklin avoid they knew that he was not going to be touched by the attack, not while he was moving the way he was, it seemed as though he had no bones in his body, the way his arms and legs moved in order to not be hit, but the whole time he was moving the look in his eyes never faded, and soon he was in range of Duke.
With Shikama in his left hand he swung it to the right leaving a gash on Duke's stomach, but the gash was not big enough to kill him, it just forced him back.
"This isn't over! Blood Spikes!" yelled Duke as a few of the drops of blood that was on the ground shot spikes at Franklin. Franklin was unable to move from where he was standing due to the spikes.
"Now that's more like it, nice and still. Now what do you say I end this huh. Red Tide!" said Duke as he formed a vortex of blood around Franklin from the remains of the surrounding henchmen.
You could hear the vortex ripping through Franklin, although no one could see exactly what was happening inside. Soon the vortex started to fade and you could make out Franklin that was still standing in the center of it, he clothes and skin was covered in small cuts all over his body.
"Ha, now let's see how you like being attacked by your own blood you, FANCY BASTARD!" said Duke as he motioned his hand in front of Franklin's body, but nothing happened.
Duke continued to move his hands but no matter what he did, the blood wouldn't responds to him, he became frustrated and began cursing under his breath, Franklin on the other hand just laughed.
"HAHAHAHAHA, sorry to disappoint you "sir" but if my blood is what you are after, I'm afraid someone already beat you to the punch" said Franklin with a look of pure joy on his face.
Now that Franklin was freed from the spikes he made a mad dash for Duke with Shikama. In response to this Duke took control of the blood coming out of the gash in his gut and covered it all over his body. Duke's body became enveloped in a crimson armor of blood, it added about a foot to his height and what appeared to be a pair of rabbit ears formed at the top of his head.
Duke, while enclosed in his armor, dashed out of the way of the attack as if it was nothing. Franklin hit the air when his attack missed, and he seemed unfazed by it.
"So how do you like my friend, "Harvey", I named, and designed it after my old pet which of course I killed, it gives me a boost in strength, speed and of course defense, so now you have no chance against…."
"Vivisection" said Franklin as he sliced Duke in half from head to toe.
Duke's two halves fell to the floor as the blood that was used for the armor returned to its liquid form and pooled around the halves.
Franklin moved Shikama back over to his right hand and almost immediately his face returned to its happy and lively look.
Maze and everyone else were in shock from what they had just witnessed, and were not able to wrap their heads around how Franklin did what he did. Franklin then walked to where Maze was still lying down.
"Like I said my friend, I had it completely under control" said Franklin as he put his hand out to help Maze up on his feet.
Maze grabbed Franklin hand and got back up. He then looked over at Miles who was now just finishing Castor's surgery.
"Well, that should do it; he should wake up in a little while, so one of you carry him to a bed" said Miles.
A little while later-
"Why is it that with plenty of men around, I the only women still conscious, is the one who has to carry the two-hundred pound fishman up a flight of stairs" said Connie.
"Well in all fairness Ms. Connie, I too am helping with carrying Castor to a bed" said Franklin.
"Stop complaining, and get him to a bed already" said Miles as he lit his cigarette.
"I'm just happy that we're finally done with those strange Mafioso's" said Kal as he was being helped up the stairs by Maze.
"Yeah and the best part, we won" said Maze.
A/N: There it is everyone, the final part of the battle between Typhoons and Falcone. I hope you enjoyed the fight and even more so Franklin, I put a lot of work into him, and little fact he was originally going to be the main character of this story, before I came up with Maze.
So everyone if you liked what you read leave a comment in the reviews and if you really liked it head over to the forums where you can discuss the story and submit your characters.
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So until next time guys and gals, look out for the next chapter and stay awesome!
In the next chapter of One Piece: The Next Story- The 4th member of the crew will be revealed along with a few secrets about the Connection between the Falcone's and the Marines. Also the return of captain Gran as he puts in motion a plan to get Maze, so for all of that make sure to check out the next chapter.
Chapter 22: The Fate of Vertain and The Crew's Doctor!