Edit: Alright, second part of my triple update weekend. There's still another one to go however :+D
Another new chapter for my lovely fans~
In my own personal news, I just beat the second Phoenix Wright game. "Justice for All" Unfortunately I don't know when I'll be able to get the third :(
New World Bound
Chapter 29: Wild Western Showdown
The United Front: Run the Clock!
"Van, this is it!"
Hideo narrowed his eyes on the teen standing across the deck from him. The mismatched man hadn't gotten the chance to grab a new shirt yet and was thus still shirtless with only his scarf covering his shoulders and blowing in the winds of the sea. With their final showdown obviously drawing near, the rest of the Starfall pirates had cleared away and given the two enough room to duke it out.
Despite the tension being so thick in the air around them, Van still found it rather easy to smile and joke. "This should be fun. One question though. Why are we having this fight on my ship of all places?"
Hideo couldn't help but do the same at the sight of this. "Haha, well, your ship is much bigger than mine. Besides, I wouldn't want to blow up my own vessel and crew with my bombers." They stared at each other intently for only a few moments longer before both captains rushed at each other.
Van attacked first with a round kick to Hideo's mid section. As the leg grew close however two more sprang out, one going for his head and the other at the Crimson Bomber's own legs. Hideo was hit and sent sliding across the wooden deck but soon rolled to his feet and tossed a single Crimson Bomber. Van didn't skip a beat and struck the bomb's side and knocked it into the water. The gray haired captain grinded his teeth in frustration and rushed in again.
Back on the Crimson Hammer, Froggy was staring out at a rather daunting sight that they seemed to be quickly approaching. At the mere sight of the thing it seemed that his eyes were about to bulge free from their sockets. "Julie! I know we're trying to escape as fast as the ship can carry us, but why are you steering us straight for that upside down waterfall, gero gero!"
At the sound of this Haze, Ursa, and Takato couldn't help but look up as well. Indeed, just as the doctor had pointed out there was an enormous upward stream of water going up the side of a mountain. It seemed the other two's reactions were practically the same as they jumped to their feet and ran around frantically. Well, everyone but Takato anyway.
Julie clicked her teeth in annoyance and looked at the rest of the crew. "Can you guys quiet down, damnit? You're giving me a headache." A vein of pure anger began to pulsate on the fishwoman's forehead as the rest of the crew stopped in their tracks.
They turned away from her for a moment and got in a huddle. "Um, is it just me or did Julie change ever since she joined us?" Everyone else in the circled nodded at Ursa's comment.
"That's the power of the great Lord Katsua's leadership in effect."
"I'm scared, gero gero! What if this isn't the groovy Julie we thought we knew? Maybe it's one of those Starfall's in disguise, gero gero?"
Haze nodded her head as well. "Or maybe she's gone insane? Until we get this resolved let's go ahead and take over the steering."
They prepared to break up the huddle but all received a punch in the back of the head by the ship's new navigator. "You idiots! If you're going to have a secret huddle to talk about me behind my back, don't do it five inches away!" The rest of the crew looked at each other as if having an epiphany moment which caused Julie to sweat drop.
"Anyway, I'm just back to my good ol' self, thanks to you guys. As for our location. What you're looking at right now is the Red Line and more importantly, Reverse Mountain. That's going to be our entrance into the Grand Line. I can't believe your captain led you this far without knowing something so important." They looked over the water to where Hideo was still fighting. "Anyway, thanks to those goons downstairs pedaling our way through the water we're making pretty good time. We should be hitting that entrance up Reverse Mountain in about ten minutes if you ask me."
Takato's eyes suddenly shifted behind the ship where something ripping through the water could be seen. He stood to his feet, being supported by the railings. "Something's coming…"
"Alright, that's enough warming up." Van said as he split into three bodies once again. Just as before, Orange was still missing from the quartet. "Seems it still hasn't been long enough for that other bastard to return." Black said in an annoyed tone as he looked to the other two clones.
"We can't w-win without Orange. This is b-b-bad." Yellow said while shivering all over, or at least until black started pulling on his hair.
"You talk like that again and you'll be missing some teeth. Got it?" The shy body nodded lightly which caused Black to smile and turn back to Hideo. "You weren't doing so well in our last fight. I hope you've rethought your strategy since then. Wouldn't want this to be too short."
Hideo grinned and put a piece of chocolate in between his lips. He then pulled out a stick of dynamite in between each of his fingers, six in total. "You don't have to worry about me. Candy or explosives, I always come prepared." Tossing each bomb he mad sure two would head out for each Van body.
Yellow shifted his eyes to each explosive and then spoke. "White, duck and roll forward. Black, jump to your right as far as possible. I've already taken into account the length of the fuses, their trajectory and the size of his explosives. Follow my orders and you shouldn't be hit." They both nodded and followed these orders. Yellow also leaped away to avoid the two explosives headed his way.
Just as the clones thought they were in the clear however a second fuse lit up on the backs of each dynamite stick, turning them back around and striking each clone in the back. They all fell to the floor, smoke rising from the burns covering their backs. White was the first body to jump back up and seemed to be smiling for some reason. "Haha, that wasn't so painful! It was actually pretty fun. Let's do it again!"
Black slowly rose back to his own two feet and looked at his oppositely colored counterpart before hitting Yellow in the gut. "You dumbass! You said we wouldn't be hit if we did what you told us!" Yellow fell back to the floor and clutched his stomach. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't realize all of those bombs had some sort of propulsion system. He must've put them on sort of a delayed fuse until the bombs reached their intended targets so they would redirect in case they were avoided.
Hideo smiled proudly. "Made them all by myself. What can I say? In fact, they're new, I should go ahead and name them. Of course, Rocket Bombers would be most appropriate." Black merely growled in return and rushed in, fists at the ready.
"Booyah! Hideo strikes again with one of his awesome bombs!" Froggy shouted after seeing Hideo's attack. Haze laughed in response, but brought up a question as well. "Why didn't he use something like this back when they were fighting on the island though?" The doctor shrugged, but someone did have an answer.
"Back when we got on the ship and left Wild Western Town. Lord Katsua went below deck. Probably to his room for the change back into his original clothes as well as to grab a restock on bombers. Though those Rocket Bombers he just used are only prototypes from what I heard. One of the more successful ones at least."
Haze raised an eyebrow and looked at the marksman. "Prototypes? So that isn't even a complete version of it? And what do you mean by more successful version?"
Takato's eyes narrowed. "As in it's one of the few that hasn't blown up in his face during testing. One of the few that he has gotten far enough to actually work in a battle situation. Though seeing as he's using such an unreliable form of attack in a battle this important must mean he's run low or completely out of his others. Which means he's probably running this whole battle on the success of his uncompleted works."
Haze and Froggy looked at him with a mixed look of shock and worry. Moments later Ursa called down to them from the crow's nest. "Guy's, I don't really know how to say this. But there's a guy riding a silver surfboard and making his way towards us using a giant propeller." He said while looking out over the water with a pair of binoculars.
Julie looked forward to the currently approaching Reverse Mountain. "We still have 6 minutes until we hit that stream. As long as we make it there in time there's no way someone should be able to follow us one something as idiotic as a surfboard."
"Um Julie, I think it's too late." As he said this the figure from the water suddenly jumped on deck. His surfboard and 'propeller' were left behind in the water and seemed to sink into the ocean which made Ursa widen his eyes with surprise. "Why did his surfboard sink? Last I checked those things usually float."
The man that had stepped on to the ship had long blonde hair reaching to his waist and a bit of it obscuring his right eye from view. He wore flowing white and gold robe like clothing that seemed rather expensive to anyone who gazed upon face gave away his young appearance as he seemed to be no older than 25. Other than this he also had sword at his side. His one visible eye began to look each pirate up and down, including Ursa who had climbed back down from the crow's nest.
Suddenly, the man burst into tears and fell to his knees. "Praise the heavens! I've finally found the infamous Crimson Storm Pirates I have been searching for." The crew sweat dropped at the sight of this and weren't sure if they should continue to be at the ready or pity the poor crying man. Suddenly, he leaped back to his feet and began to clap his hands.
"I must say, I was surprised and impressed that you guys and those Starfalls managed to escape Rolly Olly and his little girl group. Though you went on and left the whole island without even letting me know. How rude! Luckily, I managed to catch up without too many problems."
Froggy scratched his head for a moment. "Um, sorry, but, do we know you, gero gero?" The mysterious man was prepared with a response, but stopped at the sight of several more people stepping foot on to the ship. Ursa frowned upon the sight of them. "What are you guys doing here?"
This group included a rather beat up Simian, Kurtz, Rena, Kujo, and a few of the random pirates the City Hall building. Kurtz chuckled lightly, but oddly enough retained a serious face as he gazed at the blonde. "We're here to give you a helping, friend. Besides, captains orders."
Julie seemed to be burning with rage at this. "Get the hell of our ship! Why would he send you over here anyway."
Kurtz's fake eye gleamed in the light for a short moment. "Well, friend. With your previous battle injuries we doubt you'd fare to well against someone like him. In fact, if he took care of you lot and continued on to us, things would be very bad. So our best bet is to team up against this man. Lucca Santina of the Shichibukai."
At the sound of this the jaws of every member of the Crimson Storm crew dropped. Ursa was the first to begin speaking again. "A-a-a Shichibukai? What the heck is one of those doing in the West Blue?"
"No time to worry about such trivial things you losers!" Rena cried while pulling out two pistols. "Right now just focused on holding this guy off until we hit Reverse Mountain. I know we had differences not too recently, but right now we need to put that crap aside for both of our good!"
Julie stepped away from the helm and directed Takato to take over. As she walked past him she handed her leather coat his way. "Hold my jacket." She spoke while cracking her knuckles. "Seeing as those two are putting their pride as captains of their own respective crews on the line in that fight, it seems they want us to take care of things here."
Lucca looked at all of the pirates standing in his way and continued smiling gleefully. "It's been a while since I've had a chance to have some fun." Pulling out the sword handle from the sheath, everyone was shocked by the fact that it had no blade attached to the end. Only moments later did and odd silver metal begin to extended from where the blade should have been and took the form of a katana.
Without the uttering of another word, the Shichibukai dashed forward and sliced away at several pirates. Kurtz and Haze being amongst them as well as some of the random new members of Starfall. They fell to the floor, clutching their fresh sword wounds.
Back at the helm, Takato was beginning to sweat at the sight of the battle happening right in front of him. "His movements…they were so fast that even my eyes couldn't keep track of his attacks. This is the power of a Shichibukai? This is insane! And why am I shaking? Is this the emotion called fear? An emotion that didn't even appear in me when attacked by that man's devil fruit? We have to get rid of this man, before it's too late. But there's still four minutes left. Can we even last that long?"
"High Stakes: Brick Bomb!" Black suddenly shouted as he lifted up White. Yellow's and black's body seemed to suddenly grow a bit large and fatter while white's did the opposite. Black's arm then gained a large amount of muscle as he tossed the separate body like some sort of javelin.
Hideo was prepared to dodge but in midflight the body's size suddenly increased to more than it was originally and slammed headfirst into his gut. The force was enough to knock the wind out of the captain as well as making him spit up a bit of blood. White landed with a grin, but Hideo on the other hand was knocked to the ground and sent rolling across the deck and didn't manage to come to a stop until hitting the ship's railings.
He got back up to his feet and pulled down his goggles over his eyes. In each hand was a single bomb. "This one first! Blade Bomber!" He tossed a small sphere that split open midflight and sent out knives in all direction including back at Hideo. Some managed to stab into his arms and legs.
Yellow opened hit mouth to give out the dodging command but Hideo was quicker. "And Flash Bomber!" The second bomb in his hand was tossed to the ground and exploded in a pillar of light. Yellow suddenly fell to the ground as his sensitive eyes were hit. Black and White were a bit dazed as well and were easy targets for the previous blades heading their way. Hideo was seeing spots as well, but was nowhere near as harmed as the Vans.
"That should leave Yellow out of commission long enough for me to finish this." Black and White seemed to be recovering and were now pulling the blades out of their limbs.
"You will pay for that you gray haired piece of shit!" The two Vans rushed his way and began to assault the Crimson Bomber with a flurry of punches and kicks that slowly wore down his body. Black eventually managed to grab the Crimson Bomber by his legs and began to swing him around, building up momentum as he did so.
Hideo wouldn't allow him to finish this maneuver however as he used one of the remaining blades stuck in his body from the earlier used bomber and threw it into Black's chest. This slowed him down enough for the gray haired captain take control of the situation and twist his body with enough force to force Black to lose his balance and hit the floor. He didn't stop here though, using the built up momentum, Hideo continued spinning on the heel of his foot after being let loose and delivered a straight punch to White's face.
As White was sent rearing back, Black pushed off the ground with his hands and aimed a kick towards Hideo's face that the Crimson Bomber managed to block with on of his arms. Upon impact however was the sound of a loud snap.
Back on the Crimson Hammer Takato looked with horror as the entire crew was lying on the floor at the feet of Lucca. They were all still conscious, but with the Davy Back Fight, battle against the marines, and now this, none of them were I any condition to keep going. The only person standing was Kujo, who amazingly didn't have a scratch on him yet and managed to hold his own against the man.
Lucca smiled. "I wouldn't expect to meet someone like you here in the West Blue Kujo."
"I could say the same for you."
The Shichibukai scratched his head and looked over to the ship where Hideo and Van's fight was happening. His eyes were more focused on the individual in all black however. "I should've known if you were here then his main lap dog would be as well. Just what are you two up to?" Before the sword user cold get a response Kujo rushed in with his bare fist ready.
Takato could only continue watching at their fight as well as Reverse Mountain. "Only two minutes left…"
As both sides slowly recovered from these attacks Hideo couldn't help but look up at the vertical mass of water still drawing closer to them. Next he stared at his right arm that hung limply at his side.
"Looks like my right arm is fractured, usable still, but definitely not in good shape. On top of that is the fact our time is running out. I'll have to end this with my strongest and most dangerous bomber yet…"
Alright guys, that's the end to another New World Bound chapter. Hoping you liked it. Next chapter will be the end of this arc (the longest arc so far might I add)
I'd also like to ask you guys about the movie. There are two important questions I need answered by you guys or I'll either do it in the way I choose or just not do it at all. The first question is if you want the movie to be all one enormous chapter (like an actual movie) or separate chapters like the rest of the story is? And the second is if you want the movie to be canon to the story or not. And by that I'm asking if you want them to have some relation with the actual story or just be a side thing (like the actual One Piece movies are. Having no real effects on the real story)
Alright, thanks for reading, and I hope you'll stick around for the exciting conclusion~
