Ch 26

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece. If I did, Monster Chopper would have half a comic devoted to his fight against the guy in the peach latex outfit next week. Seriously, I never thought that the 'Peach Boy' folklore was going to be used for this sort of thing but I'm impressed by his physical ability without a Devil Fruit.

SH: Minor note, those who think it's 'cool' to be in Shabondy in their OC fics should understand that by far, Kizaru seems to beat the tar out of anyone save the 'Dark King', so please set your appearance on such a island before the Strawhats come out to create a war. Strangely enough, there's a bit of plotholes in the manga and more fighting than usual, but I'm sure it will be back to normal without a lot of arrests. Please read the other OC fics in the meantime awhile I work hard to make more chapters, one more to go before a new arc begins! P.S. Any OC authors who read this should use my forums to chat with each other and do OC roleplays to test interaction with each other's characters. That is all.

Ch 26

"Amongst the chaos and the near decimation of the Naval Fleet by the sheer firepower of the Ark, a young lad known as Alto stood on the battle bridge to face Atos despite the sheer radiance of a massive amount of valor. To those who lived to tell the tale, the two are almost evenly matched in terms of speed and power but Alto failed to kill Atos when he was knocked over. Then things got messy."

"I think the sun exploded." Was the first words that Alto said, his eyes stinging from the accused flash of light that nearly blinded him. His words then echoed a hundred times over in the vastness of the white space. Even when looking down, he could see he was standing on nothing but air.

About ten seconds ago, the mighty captain of a Navy Ship was facing down a giant cannonball capable of shattering every bone in his body. Without time to get out of the way, he sliced downwards with a strong chop with the strings at full length.

Instead of exploding, however, there was a huge flash of light that engulfed him completely and suddenly this hollow white void appeared before him. Empty, shallow and without any features, the place he was in stretched out for miles in all directions and if he attempted to reach the end, he would end up back at the beginning point.

"Hello?" He called out with his hands by his mouth, hopeful that someone else was trapped like him.

"HELLO?"

"HELLO?"

"HELLO?"

"HELLO?"

"HELLO?"

"HELLO?"

'Damn, that's annoying.' Alto thought, wincing from the high pitched echoes that bounced all over the endless area. Floating about did have it's advantages of course, since he could explore the place a bit more thoroughly and he could do his business without anyone watching.

Graffiti seemed to litter in the lower parts, undecipherable and crude at best, but to him it looked like pleas for help. One of them looked like a bunch of checkmarks to tell how long the person was inside, so many of which that he couldn't count that high without a headache. Green slime oozed from where he assumed was the ceiling, dripping down on his half naked body. He shivered since the slime felt a bit cold to him, maybe 28 degrees F at the most.

There had to be an exit somewhere in this ever-expanding prison of slime and graffiti, and he knew that it had to do with the Doctor's specialized Devil Fruit Power. True, he never expected such a lame ability to be this strong out of the Paramecia and Logia fruits he encountered both in the Grand Line and outside the Red Line, but this was different. It was if the Doctor had made a entire dimension to trap him in, as well as others before him.

The question that mattered most was Why? Why keep him here when they were fighting an epic battle? Flexing his fingers, he noticed the strings were very loose and unstraightened after performing that powerful slice which was odd since he always retracted them after a attack. With a brief slap downwards, the wires reminded back into coils around the fingers for later usage.

Tumbling in the air, he zipped along like trout clinging hard on a baited hook to get a better look at his surroundings despite the fact he really wasn't going anywhere at all. Up was down, left was right, the very physics of the dimension were topsy-curvy to him in general. Could this really be the true power of the Devil Fruit?

"Having fun, boy?" Looking up, or was it down; Alto saw the sneering face of the Doctor standing properly about 30 feet before him out of string range. He looked a bit sore from the last attack done to him with Double Hand, using special bandages to cut off the blood flow from open wounds. "I suppose you're wondering why I sent you to the ROOM of all places. Simply put, it's the best place to take you down."

"Why? You usually fire off those things from your hands or bring out a sheet to bring out larger objects. Yet there's no way you can do stuff like that in a weightless environment, I can just dodge or fly over it." Alto said, spinning in the air to make his point. The heavy lead cannonball that struck him in the back suddenly without warning, making him cough up some extra blood.

"You were saying?" The Doctor grinned, snapping his fingers as row after row of cannon mortars lined up around Alto by the hundreds, floating in mid-air. "It doesn't matter if the gravity is null and void, I can summon anything I wish in this realm big and small. Know why?"

"Because you're a lame magician who poses as a man of health." Alto shot back, wiping some of the blood off his face and licked his hands clean. No sense in making his strings unkept for cutting after all but his back now hurt like hell. He''ll have to ask Gandyr for a brace if he survived this deadly assault. "Besides, there's no way you can set off that many cannons on a single person without a lit match with your power."

"Magic is another word for a miracle, boy. Sure, I can't summon fire, but fire is just a tool that primitive apes invented to cook meals. Our kind, however, can kill Sea Kings and then torch them without the tools. And whoever said I was using the cannonballs, huh?" With that, the cannons themselves were propelled at Alto like rockets in all directions, forcing him to take drastic action by 'flying' towards the closest one and stood on top of it.

Quickly moving his hands out awhile balancing on the steel column part, he commenced the slicing and dicing of the cannons, but he still got pelted by debris. Wincing a bit and wishing he didn't throw off his jacket, he grabbed one of the approaching weapons of minor destruction as if it was as light as a feather and tossed it hard into a group of cannons resulting in a fiery collision. Of course, as soon as the gunpowder was lit, the cannons just 'vanished' the second the Doctor snapped his fingers.

"Thought as much." Alto said, chopping up a 7 foot long cannon into smaller and smaller chunks using '4 Finger Crossblade', which is basically turning into cubes which become smaller cubes in rapid succession of the finger movements.

He turned to do the same to a cannon falling down from above, slapping any pieces of cold steel with his unwired hand. "Your main weakness is fire, I believe. Out of the Item Devil Fruits that were listed, your power was one of the most useless in the grand DF dictionary. That's why you locked Bolero up despite the fact that Merman can't obtain the power of a Devil Fruit so easily."

"Sooo...what?" The Doctor smirked, folding his arms knowing that even with his DF exposed, Alto had nothing but his power to left heavy objects and those wapolium strings. Sooner or later, he would be completely worn out from fatigue and exhaustion, plus his wounds might reopen to produce major blood loss.

Anchors, couches, chairs, knives, swords, desks, doors (of many types), cabinets, radios, and many other furniture places joined the fray, causing Alto to kick it up a notch jumping all over the area with little control of propelling speed. With a flick of the wrist, he chopped a anchor and desk in one swing, making his way higher and higher to approach the Doctor.

"The power to make things appear and disappear, the true power of the Hanky Hanky fruit. " Alto muttered under his breath, cursing the fact that he was now destroying priceless artifacts like vases and statues. "If the object was touched by a rag or hanky, the DF user can then 'copy' the object to launch or make it disappear in an instant."

"Correct, captain. But that's not all." He said, wagging his finger as Alto drew back his right hand upon getting within string range. He didn't even bleed when the five wires shot through him with enough force to rip apart his vital organs. Alto blinked in confusion before ending up buried under a gigantic pile of junk and household items. "I can make people 'vanish' as well into the realm where all the items I store are kept. Thus, I can't actually enter the space myself but you can have fun with all my toys which I plan to drop entire landfills upon the Holyland Island Mariejois."

He chuckled, watching Alto grunting to push the heavy pile off him as the items increased per second. 'It's no use...no matter how much weight you lift, I can increase the load a thousand-fold!' The Doctor thought in the real world, massaging his palms since his gloves were made entirely out of handkerchief material. He would actually feel the sharp lashes of the wires stinging him, but they were small like Mosquito bites.

Although it seemed like Alto was in another dimension, he was actually 'trapped' inside a giant hanky cocoon that engulfed him in the center of the room. Even if he spent the rest of his life to reach the edge, the Doctor could keep him in one place at all times in that alternate 'world'.

Soldier after soldier poured in from the doors and hidden entryways, his own elite troops were gathering en masse in the Vault Room for a complete lockdown. Rumors that the commander had been taken down by a rogue Marine were quickly silenced in his presence, since he was not in the best of moods.

Within fifteen minutes, the cocoon would open up and Alto would be too weak to resist the hundreds of tranquilizers that they'll fire upon him. The Doctor would attempt to contact Dreamweaver via meditation afterwards and Voila! One brainwashed captain of a famous crew under his command, how simply wonderful! The Doctor spun around happily now, knowing that soon his ultimate plans were growing into fruition!

Back in the 'Hanky World'...

"Man, this is heavy..." Alto grunted, already bending his knees to keep the pile from falling over and burying him into the floor. He was way over the limit of what he could handle, running on the remnants of his veggie bento to supply his strength.

He probably had enough power to throw it about once into the air. Problem was that the Doctor was still watching his very move and would have more junk attack him on all sides to knock him silly. Even worse is that he could use Double Hand three more times because of those Wardens and the Gatekeepers.

'Which means that I have to use that and hope for the best.' He grunted in his thoughts, really annoyed by the aspect of using that technique. But he had no choice in the matter, if another 300 pounds of weight was added, he would not doubt be crushed into a bloody pulp. Not his best way of dying when on a mission where he was 'non-expendable'.

"Jujitsu style: Babel Tower Toss!!" With a strong cry of anguish, he forcibly heaved the heap of furniture and various items into the air awhile spreading his left arm in front and his left hand above his head. It had to be quick and precise, the intersections of the criss-crossing had to be accurate to the nearest centimeter.

The next few seconds were a blur to him, as he began to weave the attack together piece by piece leaving nothing to chance. His arms flowed smoothly, outstretching to pattern a web-like blanket of wires around him awhile making sure that they didn't get too close to his body. The slightest mistake could be like going through a giant cheese grater and then stomped into hamburger meat by the falling trash pile.

'I have to have faith in my comrades...even if they are a bunch of nuts. It will last a very short time anyway, but at least I'll be able to formulate a plan.' He thought, intertwining the very fabric of the strings harder and densier for every passing second. "DOUBLE HAND..."

4th in Rank, 4th in everything from intelligence to combat strength. The only way to climb the ladder was to surpass the 3rd in Rank but that was next to impossible. For Bolero, the only Dragonfish hybrid of his kind, surviving the power of a demented rooster man from heck was the best way to raise his standing in the Navy.

Unfortunately, that idiot teenage human was messing up with his natural rhythm. Each time he sucked in moisture to spew a fast bubble, Gregory slapped his snout with the spear to make him miss his target, which was getting him very ticked off at the moment. And when he gets mad, towns get razed to the ground. "WILL YOU STOP HITTING ME!! I'M JUST TRYING TO STOP HIM FROM MOVING! THOSE TALONS HURT YA KNOW!"

"I don't care! He's still my brother, try something else besides poison and explosions!" Gregory said, twisting around to repel a flying corkscrew kick that hit over 6 times against his spear, in which his brother flipped backwards and landed in a offensive position.

The air was now thick with steamy air, since the fireballs that missed melted part of the steel girders and pipes. Although Bolero was perfectly fine since steam carried moisture, the two humans were sweating up a storm trying to breathe normally in the warm fog. Even the built-in AC/DC Air Conditioner was a sack of charred metal slush, making the environment very suitable for Bolero's taste.

Still, the breed of rooster that Gregory's brother chose was suited to harsh climates, making him formidable to rapidly jab Bolero with a dozen sharp talon jabs. About a fourth of them actually tore into the skin, but were repelled by the lively tendrils that were moving about and extending ever so slowly. "AT LAST! MY SPINES ARE BACK TO NORMAL AFTER ALL THIS TIME!" Bolero laughed wildly, his loud roar shattering any glass in the vicinity.

Like a wave of ocean water, the long tendril cords lashed out at John, cutting into the floor and narrowly clipping one of the feathered wings. Even if he had orders not to poison, stinging the bastard to numb his body would be more than enough. The roosterman backed off a bit, hopping from one tendril to the next, swinging on the cords to climb up and over the hazardous assault.

Gregory, on the other hand, was hopping and swerving to avoid the dangerous cord-like weapons coming out of Bolero's back, step-siding a thick slash that dented the concrete flooring. "Knock it off!"

"NO!" Bolero roared as he beat his chest proudly, enjoying the fact that he was back at 100 after months of confinement. No human civilian can tell a merman what to do, only the captain had his full respect. "B-O-O-M CLUSTER BUBBLE!" Sucking in moisture from the steamy air, he spat out a purple bubble at the Roosterman which seemed to go ten times faster than the other bubbles so far.

However, the speed of the Zoan was a bit faster than he expected, since each of the bubbles ended up missing him by mere inches. Bounding off the floor and walls and flapping his 'wings' for a slight updraft float, he made illusions of himself to attract the small missiles of massive destruction.

"HOLD STILL SO I CAN FRY YA!" Bolero roared, going between swiping with the tendrils and blasting away with his bubbles. Already, the corridor that the trio came through was blocked off by rubble and piping. He got a drop-kick on the head for his troubles once the Roosterman cleared through his complicated maze of chaos, making him dizzy since he bit his tongue by accident. No talking meant no sonar after all.

Kick after kick pelted him, driving hard into his gut and stomach like a machinegun on auto-pilot. Subconciously, his spines retracted back into his back and arms at minimum length meaning that his potential was at it's lowest in terms of fighting ability. And since he couldn't 'see', merman rage was not possible. All he could do for the time being was block with both arms.

"Stop it, Brother!" John was violently shoved by a strong push of Gregory's pole-piece of the spear, as the fisherman took over as a defender. Cawing wildly, the two went off into a absolute flurry of swipes, slashes, parries, kicks and side-winder thrusts.

A rapid jab of side kicks was repelled by the spinning staff part, followed by a fierce mule kick combo. Gregory grunted, unable to see all four kicks as they pelted his ribs and shoulders. Without letting him catch his breath, John leapt up by flapping his wings and bent his knee before firing his foot down on Gregory's leg.

"Owwwww!! Geez, that smarts!" Gregory wailed in pain as the talons tore three bloody lines into the muscle tissue and ripped his jeans. He didn't fall over from the pain, however, using the spear-part to stab the floor as a walking stick.

"You can't defeat me...kohkohkoh..." A blazing fast reverse heel kick to the chest made him cough up some more blood, then brought the knee up the chest, awhile the hip moved left to extend the kicking outside edge of the foot to deal a powerful vertical kick that sent him flying through a wall. At the same time, the torch part was snapped in half upon descent as he skidded across the floor in the false room.

Relaxed by the fact that this man who claimed to be his 'brother' was no doubt killed by his waltz performance, John turned his attention to the troublesome merman who was starting to get his sonar back by rehinging his wide jawline. Because of that beast, some of his tail feathers were burnt off from those explosive bubbles. Going to his belt, he pulled out two steel-clad glaive shoes made for his over-sized talons and put them on, knowing that his footwork would replace speed for sheer power.

At least, that's what the Doctor told him and the Doctor was usually right, right? He couldn't remember much about his talks, only the fact that before he was freed, he was strapped to a table with seastone belts in a dimly lit room where he was constantly asked questions to the point of irritation. Out of the countless amount of Zoans and Paramecia types (Logias were extremely rare for the Doctor to obtain), he was the Doctor's favorite.

He supposed it was the way he kicked the lower class human trash around, or picking on the children that the Doctor abducted from the nearby village. Stealing meals from them was also a bonus since the Rooster Combat form took a lot of stamina and meat, which thankfully he ate before preventing those intruders from reaching the Vault Room.

No matter dwelling on small matters, one hit from his special combat grieves could bust a gaping truck-sized hole through a Sea King. There was no way some idiotic hybrid could fight against his dynamic stretching kicks. "Eat foot, you freak! Kohkohkoh!!" He yelled out, breaking into a fast run and leapt up towards Bolero. "Capon Spin!" In mid-air, he performed four reverse roundhouse kicks to the throat, face, and chest before rebounding off the face to avoid the dozens of tendrils that came upon him like a wave of bamboo stalks.

'Only the points are poisonous, the rest of the tendril is merely skin and some muscle tissue so it can move around.' John thought, crescent-kicking a bunch of them away with one foot and dealing minor scars. Napalmish blood sipped out drop by drop onto the floor and burned small flickers of flame before dying out a few minutes later. 'What's worse is the fact that his blubbery skin can take the impact and regenerate slowly.'

He dodged a powerful tendril drill thrust that arced out of Bolero's arm, then jumped over the second arm and struck it hard with a somersault twist kick. Bolero bellowed out in pain, since his arms were not as reinforced as his chest and the rest of his body. (mainly because Dragonfish have light 'fins'.

"FINALLY!" Bolero gasped as if he was submerged in saltwater for an hour or more, since he was part dolphin. The range of vision became clear as a bell again the second he bellowed out, covered in a dim green light due to the sonar bouncing off. He suddenly was pushed back by a fierce combination of Reverse Roundhouse heel kicks and a strong sidekick to the left arm. The last kick was quickly repelled by a umbrella-like shield of tendrils that he formed.

"IS THAT ALL, HUMAN?" Bolero grunted angrily, rubbing the sore parts where he was kicked. "ON A SCALE FROM ONE TO TEN IN TERMS OF ATTACK, YOU DEFINETLY SCORE A FIVE OR LESS. THOSE HURT ME A BIT AFTER ALL."

"Quiet, merman scum! Because of you mutant freaks, we as the superior race have to deal with you sinking our ships! Once we kill off the apes, every last merman will be hunted down and slaughtered like the fish they are!" He said, leaping back up to deliver a nasty Axe Kick to the head, only to shatter the tendril shield which moved up to guard.

The hybrid merman grunted from the impact but stood his ground, and began to suck up moisture in the air to gather in his cheeks. Awhile he hated the fact that he lost some of his spines, one clean shot should take the fool out. Problem was that stupid rooster guy was faster than Alto, he could barely trace the kicks.

"B-O-O-M BUBBLE SEEKERS!" He shouted, spewing about eighteen bubbles or more in random directions. Without hesitation, John kicked off the wall to gain speed and momentum to arc over the barrage, jumped over Bolero's head again and performed a explosive mule kick to the blowhole. "YEOOOW! THAT SMARTS!" Bolero screeched, as two dozen tendrils erupted from his backside to entangle John before he could land perfectly again.

John struggled hard to break free, but the whip-like spines were as tight as iron now that they 'locked' his joints to prevent him from breaking free. Carefully, they extended around to the front so he would come face-to-face with Bolero's ticked off mug.

"HUMAN, IT'S ONE THING TO MOCK ME AND MY INTELLIGENCE BUT IT'S ANOTHER THING TO SAY THAT I HAVE ANY TIES TO THE MERMAN RACE! THE DRAGONFISH CLAN HAS NO LOYALTY WHATSOEVER TO JIMBEI AND HIS IDIOTIC WAYS, AND ANY MERMAN WHO FACES US WILL BE POISONED AND DEVOURED. IT'S BECAUSE OF THEM THAT I WAS THROWN INTO THE NAVY IN THE FIRST PLACE!" The tendrils tightened harder now, nearly cutting off the blood flow to the head as Bolero ranted. "SO EITHER GIVE UP OR OWN UP!"

"Kohkohkoh! Broody Peck!" Bolero now realized the importance of depth perception for his eyes, as John craned his head back to drive his extra sharp beak into the forehead. It cut through the protective layers of flesh and forced him to release his hold on the Rooster Man who landed back on the floor. "And... Chanticleer Flow!" He said, springing up about three foot in the air to perform a four hit butterfly kick to the abdomen and chest.

"URRRRGH!" It felt like a dozen jackhammers pounding at his gut, nearly knocking him over had it not been for his tendrils to stabilize him. And just as quickly, part of the floor exploded beneath his feet to deal heavy burns to John's wings which he shifted into Zoan-human rooster arms.

'What was that?' He wondered, backing off only to set off another explosion of heat and flame.

"HEH...HEHEHEHE...MORON." Bolero snickered, spitting up a little blood that set a paper wall aflame for a few minutes. "TO ME, EVERYTHING IS TRANSPARENT. YOU DIDN'T THINK I WOULD BE CALLED THE GOD OF FLAMES IF I WENT EASY ON PATHETIC MORTALS LIKE YOURSELVES." With a sudden burst of speed, he rammed Joey hard with a clothesline and bashed him into another corner of the room where he set off a chain of infernoes.

"Those #ing bubbles you shot out...they didn't pop, did they?" Bolero turned around to see Gregory walking with a slight cramp in his walk and cradling his left arm in a makeshift sling of the Genova Corp suit.

"GOOD TO SEE YOU SURVIVED, ALTO WOULD SEND ME FLYING IF YOU WERE HARMED. AH...WHAT'S THAT?" Between his speech, he noted the odd multi-segmented pole where the torch was.

"My ascension into #ing manhood." Was his reply taking off to approach John head-on despite the invisible 'land mines' going off seconds after contact. Yet, he seemed to duck and roll to snuff the fire before going on, or avoid them all together.

'IMPOSSIBLE!' Bolero's eyes elongated out of shock, taken back by the fact that the human had seen through one of his most complex moves.

'If that #y merman thinks he can trick one of the greatest fisherman in the world, he has another thing coming. After years of intensive training, I can spot even the smallest air bubble and nail the fish below with my spear.' Gregory thought, dashing quickly until he reached John, who was already getting up with a primal growl. His feathers were blackened farter, some of which were burnt off into ashes.

"No one makes a fool out of me! Die, you mindless freak! Yangbi Jette!" He said, completely going airborne and ignoring Gregory in order to perform a rapid-spinning corkscrew flying kick.

Gearing his right arm behind his back with the long spearpole in hand, he swung hard with a slight wavering. Only thing different was that his eyes were shut for some reason. "Gorge him...Yamada."

It happened in a matter of seconds, as seven crimson-stained lines appeared and circled around John's body to tear deep into the flesh. The roosterman looked stunned as his own red blood flowed like rivers onto the floor, barely able to descent into a decent landing position.

Gregory pulled back hard with gritted teeth, his shoes planted into the ground.

"Draw back the catch." He said, as John was yanked off the floor quickly towards him.

"And release!" With a strong sprint, he tackled his John by shoving the Spear hard into the stomach area. "Next, the Trolling!"

John ended up flailing backwards, as several more slashes were torn into his hide with a twitch of the spear rod. He kicked randomly at air as his forehead bled, seeping into his eyes to damage his line of vision.

"GO GET 'EM, KID!" Bolero roared, walking out of the room since he could tell Gregory had this one in the bag. It was very simple to him now that he had sonar back online, the torchspear Gregory had before was hollow inside on one side. Thus, he was presented with a better weapon, a fishing pole with many hooks.

Not that it was his business, the transparent bubble bombs that he inserted will pop anytime now. And he certainly wasn't getting in the way of family matters, since the only way he dealt with his family members was to beat them to a pulp before they could.

No. First things first, like the stupid vault door and bars blocking his way. Alto was being awfully silent for some reason, and he knew the Doctor more than anyone, that cowardly sneak. Gritting his teeth, he opened his jaw all the way and puffed his gut inwards, sucking in the remaining water vapor in the air.

"B-O-O-M BUBBLE STREAM!" He yelled out, spewing a straight line of red bubbles at the vault door. But instead of exploding, the first one that touched it clinged on and grew in diameter once the second bubble attached and merged, and so on. He did hear what Alto told him to begin with, so by making the bubbles fuse, the detonation would have to be massive in scale.

"Why are you fighting me? I want to kill only the merman!" John growled, rapidly side-kicking Gregory's spear blocks with the flat side. He had to be wary now because of the fishing pole with the hooks, since the lad had very good skill with casting.

"I won't let you do that! It is my duty as the chief's second son to bring you back to the village, even it it means losing my life in the process. Please snap out of it!" He said, avoiding a roundhouse mulekick and jumped over the second mulekick, spinning in mid-flight to cast the hooks out around John. "Net Bait."

The hooks instantly twisted around him, tying his feet together before he could deal another round of kicks. "And Cleave." John screamed as the hooks impaled the thick skin of his chicken legs, done by a strong tug on the fishing rod. He fell over face-first, his beak smashing into the floorboards.

"You do realize how much I like you, bro?" Gregory's eyes were tearing up now, saddened that his brother was struggling to keep fighting. "I always admired you. You were always the front man whenever we went fishing for giant tuna, bashing the heads of those barbaric fish with clawed fins."

'#t, why can't I break this?' John thought, attempting to kick off the ground to get some distance, only for Gregory to stomp down on his leg.

"However..." He stared right into his brother's placid, zoned-out eyes as he put pressure on that leg joint. "I was the more sadistic of the family, chopping the fish before we made landfall and grilled it to perfection. Even when that barbaric merman that you beat up came on shore, I was the first to greet it with a dozen spears soaked in Blawfish toxin. Sadly, it's poison neutralized mine but that's not the point."

"Then what is the point, you weirdo?" John barked back, reverting back to human form to see if the sudden change could release the wires hold. Instead, they just got tightener.

Gregory's eyes gleamed dangerously in the dim light of the room, licking his lips in amusement. "Ever since I came into this place, I've been feeling strange urges that I can't explain. When I escaped the first time with those Bake Wardens in tow, I felt the need to suffocate kittens, bury dogs halfway in the sand and do all sorts of mischief. Now that I'm back, I felt the urge growing stronger but the feeling of it just now left suddenly. Regardless, I feel that I should punish you." Chuckling lightly, he began to massage John's bruised backside with his rough, fisherman's hands. The screaming began a second later, but that's another story...

The real story was the fact that a certain abomination was heading straight towards Bolero with a overpowering intent to kill, with two lifeless bodies dragged behind it in a tail wrap. Any soldier in it's path was either trampled or devoured; bones and all in a single chomp in a single swallow.

At that moment, Bolero got goosebumps all over his somewhat blubbery body in a way that made him chatter randomly with clicks and whistles like a dolphin. Then the room that Gregory was in self-destructed into a wildfire explosion as all the bubbles popped at once in which he heard mild groans and death threats coming from Gregory. Considering that the explosion occurred 5 minutes after that rooster guy started to scream, the merman didn't even want to know what those two were up to.

"HEH...20 SECONDS TO GO." He grinned despite the shuddering of ill intent, watching the wriggling glob of agitated water spheres amass and grow. "OR WAS IT 35? I COULD NEVER REMEMBER."

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr." A heavy growl was heard behind him, one that he didn't even sense. A thick sweatdrop appeared on his brow, feeling the heavy tension as the bubbles gathered into one and condensed with each passing second.

"CRAP." Was the last thing he was able to say before the tow truck-sized paw of destruction piledrived him straight into the freaking vault door with enough force to shatter a tank in half.

The Doctor stared at his watch for the 821st time during the long wait, impatient to get this trial over with. Some of the soldiers, his very elite that he worked tirelessly to improve mentally and physically, were talking amongst themselves and losing focus by putting away their guns due to the fatigue on their hands. Those were killed instantly by him blowing them apart with self-propelled swords from his repaired gloves which he reknitted to improve his performance.

"Only a minute to go." He gritted his teeth, hoping that his men had finally isolated the remaining navy pests wandering around aimlessly on his territory. He didn't bother to check up on Alto in that other 'dimension', time worked differently in that realm, so no matter what technique he would use, it was futile to keep up after a long period of time.

Still, he should think about having his men take the gunpowder barrels out of the Vault room since they were a safety hazard to his well-being. As long as Alto was stuck inside his giant hanky, he couldn't make more of them to make the barrels vanish into thin air.

Just in case, he checked his watch again, uncaring of how the other soldiers saw him as. As a pirate doctor with a stolen license, he could prescribe his own medicine without consequence. A few injections, a bunch of pills and maybe some illegal drugs and he'll get over this odd habit. 'I might have to get rid of the No Smoking rule as well, my lungs need to be destroyed after a year of staying off it. Sure, I'll get cancer but then I'll have Alto here force Gecko Moria to cure it since I heard that Warlord has a genius surgeon.' He thought, knowing that the captain of the Leviathan was a threat to the 7 Warlords of the Sea.

Coughing a bit to relieve the tension, he began walking towards the spasming white blanket with a brisk tap in each footstep. "Your time is just as about up-" Just then, he was caught off-sentence by the flaming vault door which burst off his specialized metal hinges and crashed hard into a bunch of bored soldiers who were either crushed to death or started to be burned alive through the 'cracks' of their fireproof armor.

"It's HIM again." The Doctor frowned, crossing his arms in a ticked-off fashion with gloves pointing out to each side for protection. 'Thought I told that lousy fisherman to keep him away awhile I was performing my task. I don't have time for this.'

"GAH...I CAN'T BELIEVE THE CAPTAIN BROUGHT HER ON THE RESCUE MISSION." Bolero mumbled, brushing himself off of the soot and melted metal. The crimson red claw marks were embedded into his tough chest, but he didn't seem to notice since the fire itself had cauterized it into battle scars.

Detecting the mass amount of soldiers armed with armor-piercing rounds awhile talking, he realized that all of them were completely ignoring him. And for good reason, as Cresendo lumbered in on all fours in full beast form. Her very presence was stifling to everyone save for the Doctor, since she smelt like she had been bathing in raw sewage (which was very likely). For even though she couldn't control the transformation, she knew enough to bend over and adapt for a small entryway, pushing aside the walls like they were cardboard or just chewing up the plaster for more room. Food was food after all.

The Doctor met her gaze of bloodlust and matched it with his own sinful glaze, the pentagram etched on his glasses gleamed a bit from retraction. What a glorious zoan beast the Navy kept to themselves! If she were to die in an accident, he would be provided with years of scientific discoveries that could benefit the new world and beyond, transforming all Zoans into natural killers without free will or individual thought.

She was quickly under seige by the soldiers, bellowing a huge warcry of starvation and chaos as she lumbered back to two feet to stand defiant against the shells that bounced off her furry hide. Her long black tail unraveled for combat purposes to reveal both Timekeeper and Jester who looked dazed and ragged from battling her without teamwork.

To recap that battle in a short summary: Jester continously ran around the room to fire off a special Rankyaku in the shape of triangles known as Prism Rankyakus which split into 9 seperate, smaller Rankyakus to bombard her in separate places. Frustrated, she leaped in just as he was about to make a geppou and hammered him hard with a double fist pound to the skull to send him crashing down.

Likewise, Timekeeper had better luck with her since he had more weaponry at his disposal. The silver, tin and gold spheres directed a stream of flames, electricity, and lethal projectiles in large quantities. Cresendo didn't seem to enjoy it that much since it bit hard into her rough skin and singed some of her fur. How annoying.

Getting to full height, she grabbed his prone form off the floor and attempted to munch on his skull. A second later, she spat him out since he tasted like plastic and some weird materials that were barely metal and other junk. That didn't stop her from hitting Timekeeper with Jester as the hammer, .

She also drooled heavily on both of them to envelop them in thick saliva to preserve the flavor. Since both of them were of a new variety and would try to stop her from killing off all the humans in the building, she'll have them later for dessert.

And now...after hours of wandering, she made it to the freaking Buffet Line. All those humans in armor, she'll maul them until there was nothing left, bones and all. Roaring a word of challenge, she loomed like a tower over the front group and snatched a few of them in both hands. For some reason, they tasted a bit like Bacon with relish as she chomped down despite the moaning and screaming.

The bullets were pestering her though, cutting into the open wounds Jester and Timekeeper made. Luckily no one them had Seastone, so she slapped the first wave with her over-sized hand to create a domino effect to knock them over. A familiar scent was in the area, not the merman who would barely pierce her flesh, but emitting from that odd hanky lying on the floor. Without even a 'Excuse Me', she bashed the Doctor aside with a full-on tackle before he could fire off a anchor or a wrecking ball. He flew into his troop's open arms to catch him, dazed but impressed by the sheer power she possessed.

But as soon as she got close enough, the hanky exploded into hundreds of pieces of white fabric startling her. Fifteen minutes was up, and Alto yawned after his somewhat relaxing nap inside the boundary less dimension. Strangely enough, he was in a ball of his own wire which surrounded him on all sides; his arms crossed so he could expand and constrict the wires so nothing could break in. Otherwise known as "Double Hand Twine Ball", it was his special defense when attacked on all sides since the projectiles and large objects would be shredded on contact. Unfortunately, it meant he had to stay in one place for a long time without moving his hands, otherwise it would collapse on itself.

Crescendo watched eagerly as her prey unweaved the strings around him with sleek and agile motions, his eyes closed since the lighting needed to get used to after being stuck in that bright room for what seemed like days. A new smell perked up her nose as she could sense something coming from the ventilation shafts.

The other guards could also hear it and mounted their guns at both her, Alto and the vents and coaxing the Doctor back onto his feet. It didn't matter who it was at this point, all intruders would be captured no matter what the body count. At least...that's what they thought before a grenade-sized red flare shot down to the floor and erupted into a thick red smokescreen that covered the area.

Crescendo coughed a bit, her sense of smell partially disrupted by the gassy fumes, which was good as a rope was thrown down and a grate was smashed wide open for three individuals to slide down inconsipiously amongst the group next to Alto.

"Psssst...captain. Got something for ya." Alto heard Prelude's voice whisper to him, as he was handed a gray box with carrots and mashed potatoes inside. After leaving with Requiem, who was currently using the red fog as a way to blast long arrows into a few soldiers abdomens and skulls, she came across George, who was carrying a spare navy bento from the mess hall. He also treated her with the antidote the Pink Warden carried and a spare supply of flares in exchange for a kiss. Instead, he got a broken nose and a warning never to hold something like that over her head.

Hoping that Prelude didn't cook the meal since everything she makes burns, Alto gulped and stuffed his face with the veggies, swallowing and gouging like his life depended on it. Prelude then ran at the nearest soldier who was aiming at her captain and punched him tith explosive force, sending him flying down rows of his comrades like a bowling ball through pins.

"...Eliminate..." Without a Log Pose or any opposing magnetic forces corrupting her, Requiem drew back on her long bow to execute one soldier at a time or plug up their guns with arrows to make them backfire. There was little time to set up normal wards, but she did set up a few suitras for the vault door in case DF users loyal to the Doctor would show up.

Requiem barely registered Crescendo coming up from behind and clapped her paws open to get some fresh air, uncovering her, the marine and Prelude's presence. Thinking briefly, she muttered a quick prayer and tossed a suitra in front of her comrade's giant claw, deflecting it momentarily with a weak barrier which looked like purple electricity.

Irritated that she couldn't shatter the defense, she turned her head towards her first target who was just about done with his mid-meal snack. All that was needed was a two-pronged attack on both sides with a clap, then he'll be the perfect meal she had in ages.

"Crescendo? Is that you?" Rubbing his eyes to clear up his current field of vision, he was breathed on by his Cabin Girl's smoky, foul breath as she came upon him at full height on two legs. "Yep. It's you, only you would be that stupid."

As if angered by that snide comment and ignoring the frightened looks of the soldiers, she screeched a hateful howl and brought down the heavy mini-van sized-length paws of death upon him with enough force to shatter him into paste.

"However..." Without stopping his matter of speech or looking up, he brought up his hand with fingers opened wide.

'Im...impossible!' The Doctor thought, stunned by such a display of strength occurred.

"Without knowledge, you cannot defeat your captain." Alto finished his sentence, completely unharmed and licking the remnants of the mashed potatoes off his face with his long tongue. "Maximum strength re-established." His eyes glittered and his grin grew wide for the thrill of combat again.

Crescendo looked a bit forlorn hanging up in the air like a umbrella, since he lifted her main body up by her paw like a bat and then swung her down in front like a hammer. The impact was like a bomb exploding to disable the first wave of soldiers who harmlessly littered her prone mass with tranquilizer darts (which bounced off her hairy hide). Others lost their footing from the heavy quake or dropped their guns awhile aiming.

In an almost cartoonish sort of way, he proceeded to demolish the area by pounding her body to the right and left and in front, using her to take the tranquilizer darts meant for him. Gradually, she began to lose consciousness as a result of his brutality. He didn't care, she could take the damage and recover from it rather quickly if he used her to defend him for the time being.

"Ah, hello Doctor!" Alto greeted his archfoe by swinging the heavy mass of muscle and fur down upon him, only for the guards to quickly pass him away and were crushed into the floor for their loyalty. Only then did Crescendo revert back to human form, so tired to even move or eat hanging low from his hand.

Turning to George in a sense of gratitude for his services, Alto offered Crescendo over to him and told him briefly to get the heck out of the room so he could do his job. The wounded marine saluted and fled out the hole in the wall just as the red smoke cleared up fully, but already 1/5th of the 1000 elite members were down and out thanks to Requiem's and Prelude's combination.

"Guess I was a bit rough." Alto said bluntly, slashing a tranquilizer aimed for his heinie. "Oi! Prelude!" he called out to his lieutenant commander who was busy punching one of the bigger, more burly guards until his jaw broke.

"What?" She yelled back, tossing the punk into a crowd and fired off four yellow flares to set them aflame.

"Where's Gladyr?!" Alto asked, splitting three guards down the middle aka cutting their armor as well as the weapon they were holding into pieces.

"I heard he's taking a different route out of the base." Prelude said, indifferent to the old geezer's health condition. "According to him (aka ), he managed to find a private Den Den Mushi after fighting a bunch of soldiers. Something about a squid attacking the ship or something, I didn't make it out with the static."

"He gets all the luck." Alto sweat dropped, swirling his strings to poke a few holes on the armor to dislocate the leg joints. Soldiers left and right fell over as he 'whipped' them lightly without cutting off the limbs themselves.

"...he dies tonight..." Was Requiem's response, sniping a pair of guards who were lining up mortar cannons. Iron particles gathered around her and formed into arrows for her bow to release.

"Anyway, Plan G for now until we get reinforcements. Bolero, how much juice can you use on the Doctor?" Alto said, as the merman was already being dog piled and blasted at despite his tendrils stinging randomly.

"GOT ME. THIS ROOM ISN'T VERY MOIST." Bolero chuckled, feeling the bullets smack his flesh like pebbles. One of them managed to destroy one of the spines, releasing a small stream of napalmic blood to consume the crowd for a short time. "I'D SAY 3 MINUTES BEFORE I CAN GATHER ENOUGH MOISTURE FOR A FULL-OUT EXPLOSION."

"You have 2. And aim it at the Hankies only, there's gunpowder barrels littered around the area." Alto warned him, now running straight towards the Doctor who was spreading both hands out in front.

"Pity that you have to rely on such weak friends." He smiled wide, foreknowing that despite his elite squadron's losses, the group was going to be captured either by blood loss, lack of ammunition and the fact that there was still 800 people ready to lay down their lives for him. "Last chance, be one of us and I'll spare them."

"I told you before, I don't work for anyone other than the Gorosei! So you can take your words and shove them down your throat!" Alto said, retorting seriously as he flash-bolted towards the Doctor with both hands raked out for speed clawing,

The Doctor sighed, knowing that he had no other choice, as he angled his hands upwards. "Your choice then, I can always bring you back to life later on. Astaire Shell!"

What happened next was the entire ceiling was overshadowed by a mass surge of handkerchiefs shooting out of the palms. Followed by a burst of nails that forced the hankies to cling to the surface plaster of the ceiling.

"And now! Cagney Finale!" Sweeping his hand down just as Alto was close enough, Upside Pianos weighing roughly more than 500 lbs fell down by the dozen onto a single spot in front of him.

"Double Hand Rake!" Alto yelled, curving the wires out to maximize the curve of the attack, completely unaware of the danger coming down from above.

"WATCH OUT, BOSS!" Bolero called out, but was quickly overtaken by 3 dozen soldiers who began to bind him with chains to restrict his movement.

SNIT!! WHAMMMMM!

Out in the open sea, the private boat that the Director owned was in wooden shambles. Wooden planks littered the ocean surface, one of which was held on to for dear life by the egg-shaped man who was sweating desperately.

"How could this happen?" He wondered to himself, since it happened so quickly. The large metal/glass container was blown apart and drifting away, half-floating up and down in the water and sank a few minutes later. His right arm was also floating away once that person ripped it off since 'it disgusted him'.

He plotted the course for escape weeks in advance, even counting in a Navy Fleet landing nearby the island. And once they were well-out of range of sight and cannonfire, he planned to get out of his camouflage blanket to activate the life-restoring tube.

What he didn't count on, however, was the Grand Line's unpredictable weather patterns as a giant thunderstorm appeared out of nowhere and tipped the boat over with a 30 foot tidal wave. The large tube was thrown into the sky the same time he went overboard and was hit by a stray lightning bolt. Without even a switch thrown, the two blood samples were inserted into the flesh. 2 seconds later, the very storm itself was gone into a pitch black sky and the boat was entirely blown apart.

He could see the guy even when he had his eyes closed, those steely red eyes that could see everything around him as a inferior threat. With those long bat-like 'wings', he looked like a fallen angel from heck ready to reclaim the living world as his prize.

"HoW lOnG hAvE i BeEn AsLeEp?" Was the only thing this, this monster asked, showing only his back to the Director. His voice was maddening to the ears, like cat nails and forks scratching on a chalkboard, and it felt like the Director's ears would bleed. It was hard to see the facial features since the sun was getting into his eyes or how tall he really was, but his blackened, twisted and corruption-filled aura covering his body was a sure sign that it was the real deal before him.

"A century, my Lord. We at SUPA-" Without warning, he no longer had a mouth to speak. To that man, it was a bumper sticker to rip off and hold in his hand. The Director looked surprised, even bewildered that that man would treat his savior in this manner.

"ShUt Up." Was his reply, as the Director looked on in terror as he could no longer breathe normally outside through his nose. His hands, they were turning green for some reason and bleeding from thin cuts. "YoU hAvE sErVeD yOuR pUrPoSe."

He wanted to gasp, to ask why he was being mistreated but he would clearly tell that this person was not someone who liked to chat. Now that he thought about it, those weren't 'wings' but his long, black ragged cloak reshaped to look like wings. His hair began to fall out a strand despite it being a wig, his cheeks were drawn inward and his eyes watered endlessly as the legendary person pointed at him sternly.

"AlL hUmAnS mUsT Be JuDgEd. ThE sEnTeNcE Is: ChArYbDiS." He said, raising into the pitch black sky and swirled his right pinky at the water. The Director, watching his own flesh recede to show his red muscle tissue and blood veins on his finger tips, was suddenly dragged off the wooden board.

He tried to scream or cry out, swimming hard against the strong current but it was a bit hard with his legs merged together like a fish tail. What he was caught in was a giant whirlpool with teeth aka a Pondsucker Sea King, one of the most nastiest beasts who hide in the Grand Line waiting to snare a boat or two. 'Damn you, Karma!!' He said in his head, watching as one of the most dangerous men in history fly off without even a sparing glance. He had bigger fish to fry, after all, he was a busy man with a world to conquer. "KeShKeShKeSh."

Trolling-A fisherman's way of pull and release, forcing the fish to take a set path to smash it's head against rocks and such.

Blawfish toxin-A seemingly lethal poison that is found in a small fish covered in brown warts. Kills two minutes after consumption, but the side effects involve the eater going into a unfit rage and beating up the first person he sees.

Babel Tower Toss- A upwards throw of a extremely heavy object, if it comes down, Alto would have done something else to prevent being flattened.