AN: Sorry for this long overdue chapter, but I needed to nail Mr. 6's intro perfectly and make this fight was epic in its own way…you'll see why below. Another reason was because I'm still hammering in and performing the calculations to insert four arcs of my own into my story…Two 'Battle' Arcs (i.e. a Skypeia/Arabasta/Enies Lobby style arc) and two Filler-style (i.e. only 2-3 chapters long) arcs of my own…and of course I'm working on my own Mugiwara Theatre just for the hell of it. My brain is an unfathomable amount of plot-twists, character developments, powers, dialogues, and drama…its becoming a real cluster-f*^ in there.
Colbub says:
For some reason, whenever I imagine Khurt, I imagine an unclely looking muscled man with one of those not-quite beards who are cool and nice. Kind of like Iceberg. XD
Rabb: Haha …if Khurt heard you call him unclely I think he'd take offense...but anyway, Khurt's beard is more like Joe's from Soul Eater, in which is actually called a chin curtain beard.
Avatoa asks:
You gave him a weakness like Seastone ? Why would you do that to your own character?
Rabb: Because I'm delightfully EVIL! MWAHAHAHA…(ahem) anywho, it's my belief that every good good-guy has to have two main weaknesses, a physical and a mental. Take Luffy, Physical = Seastone, bladed weapons, Mental = Naive, Unknowledgeable…Khurt now has a physical weakness, and his mental weakness will be revealed later on (if you've already guessed what it is, kudos to you)
Syco's Path asks:
What is Robin's interest in Khurt and the Avatars? And will it come into play with the poneglyph's?
Rabb: Mysteries abound! Only time will tell!..P.S... Flattery will get you everywhere.
Chapter 43: Bloom and Doom
"Everyone know the plan?"
We all nodded in affirmation, as Zoro held a fist wrapped around a handful of straws. Our huddled forms each taking one to decide who was teaming up with whom for our arrival in Alubarna…
Billowing white mantles withheld our identities as we approached the city atop the Super Spot-Billed Duck Squadron…except of course my partner whose Pinocchio-nose shot out from the darkness of his hood as if to say "I AM NOT VIVI, PLEASE DO NOT ATTACK ME.".
"Goddamnit…" I grumbled mentally over who I had gotten stuck with, my mood making me clutch the reins that much harder as the sun barely peeked over the horizon.
"Let's go." Sanji said confidently, whipping his reins before the rest of us followed suit.
I cracked my knuckles out of habit as we approached Alubarna at a furious pace, its features coming into view. The rising sun glinted off both the cityscape and the mesa it sat upon, soon revealing a small group of people at its base.
"Baroque Works…" I thought, eager for a chance to crack some skulls, I reached into my pocket and pressed a button on my player, it soon complied and my headphones began thumping to the rhythm of Two Steps from Hell's Elementum. "Reaver's gonna pop up any second…better be on the lookout…" I scanned every which-where for even an inkling that suggested one of the demons trying to muscle his way into the fight…until I noticed the additional figure standing amongst the agents.
"What the…?"
The sun was now a bright orange as it became a semi-circle in the sky…only the tranquility of the scene was disturbed when a mammoth cannon fired from the agents' location, a small baseball grinding into the sand ahead of us.
"Get away from it!" I ordered the group, us all instantly splitting up into our assigned pairs and bolting for the gates. The baseball became a distant explosion as our ducks raced for the city, Usopp and I darted for the agents as Mr. 2 leapt to strike us from the sky. I glanced at the newcomer; he was rail thin, but seemed to tower, probably nearing seven feet in height by my estimates. He was dressed as if attending a gala, fancy tuxedo-wear branding his legs and feet, along with what looked like a maestro's jacket over a blouse-like shirt, a few button undone to show off his lean torso. A wide-brimmed black priest hat cast a light shadow over his head and shoulders, jet black hair with fringes of color adding to the covering as it wafted in waves past them.
"We'll be off to the Southwest gate then!" The sniper declared in an all-too-fake girl voice, the ducks following his command and instantly veering off of Mr. 2's attack course. The hunters now began to copy our strategy and divide to catch us. The Mr.1 pair bolted after Nami and Zoro, the mole-woman and her ogre companion chased Sanji and Chopper, which left the okama Mr. 2 dancing his way after us…along with the unknown I witnessed earlier.
Ascending the stairs, our ducks were let instantly through without question the blockade the Royal Army mustered in a vain attempt to keep the rebels from entering the city. The chocobo-ducks made a very strange clacking noise as their claws hit paved road, only mine also made a glugging one as he now chugged down his flask.
"Shit…did a Reaver come when I didn't notice? What the hell is going on?" I mentally shouted, taking another chance to peek at our unidentified pursuer. I sensed none of the darkness I got from the Reavers during my fights with them…but there was a lingering shadow I could feel…but it was a foreign instinct I had never felt before. He bolted alongside Mr. 2, a black violin case slapping against his back, struggling to keep his hat from flying off…I could not catch what they were saying, but the two did not seem to enjoy each other's company as their faces distorted from yelling at each other...they seemed as liable to start fighting each other than trail us.
"Enough!" I heard a yell and I turned around to see the unknown man bound up to a rooftop and dash across buildings…a pink glow cascading from his hands.
"Récolte Piège!" Something resembling a vine slithered out from his sleeve, and he swirled it above his head before lobbing right at me.
"What the-?" I couldn't finish as the tendril wrapped around me and hurled me right off my mount.
"Khurt!" Usopp shouted, still in his disguised voice.
"Keep going, Vivi! I'll be fine!" I yelled back, standing up and easily breaking apart the lasso that had entrapped me, Mr. 2 completely ignoring me.
"Lightning Javelin!" Not bothering to meet the unknown who had dismounted me, I shot a lance of energy at the now-departing Bon Clay…only for him to easily sidestep the attack and continue his pursuit.
"Excellente…" I turned to see the beanpole leap to the ground before me, a confident grin on his thin face. "It seems I had chosen correctly." His voice was lightly accented with a French accent.
"Correctly? Sorry, but I ain't Vivi, dipshit." I grunted throwing off my hood, the revelation having no effect upon him.
"Who said I was looking only for the dear princesse?" He chuckled back in a light whinny. "You were a secondary objective for me, my dear Monsieur Vanguard…"
I cocked an eyebrow at this, "What the hell do you mean, secondary objective?"
"I mean…I represent not only Baroque Works as Mr. 6…but a group of people just like us…" Seeing my still questioning face, he let off another small winded chortle. "My name is Devereux Sergei…and you see…" He now unbuttoned the remainder of his blouse-shirt, exposing his supremely thin body…but I was focused on the tiny pink gem that was embedded on his chest. "I am an Avatar of Imani…a Plant user."
"Wha…what the hell?" I stammered, unable to comprehend my first meeting of a fellow Avatar was a psychotic dirt-bag bounty hunter.
"I represent the Master's Eye Cabal…a group of Avatars dedicated to the destruction of the Reavers…" He ranted like a priest possessed, arms raised in holy praise. "We seek only your companionship, my friend."
This snapped me out of my little daze; I turned to face him, "Right. You started a war just to become buddy-buddy with me…and I'm the goddamned King of England." I snorted sarcastically.
"Tut tut, my friend…my group's alignment with Baroque means I must sometimes do what Zero-san orders…" He waved a finger at me disarmingly before continuing, "Alas I feel no remorse for these…ugly little people." Giving another dark chortle, he continued, "But none of that matters now…I have my orders…will you hear my proposal?"
Seeing how I hadn't spoken against the prospect, Sergei resumed his speech. "I would only ask for you to leave all this worthless fighting behind…for really..it is beneath us both to participate in a petty conflict…and simply come with me…I will take you an embassy of sorts for the Cabal in this world...and there, we will unlock your true potential!" Grinning like a madman, he ranted with arms once again in a stance denoting a preacher's sermon, "Power rivaling that of the Guardians themselves! A path to defeating the Reavers once and for all! All it would take is to leave this ragged lot behind!" He breathed heavily, an alien excitement empowering his words…but none of it affected me the way it did him.
"So…you want me to abandon my nakama…betray their trust…and let an entire country be consumed to feed some asshole's ambition to go and join your little Avatar club?" I seethed; a berserker's calm searing my voice. His eyes meandered to my clenching fists, my anger-fueled lightning dancing across whitened knuckles.
"I take that as a no?" He sighed, all former exhilaration dissipated as he unstrapped his violin case and set it upon the ground. "And here I thought…" He didn't finish his sentence.
"LIGHTNING FIST!" I struck him full on in the gut with a lightning-imbued punch; I took a grim satisfaction in seeing his eyes bulge in surprise and pain before he flew into an adjacent building, impacting right through the wall.
"You gotta be a complete dumbass if you think I'll ever do that!" I shouted at the hole he left in flight.
"Récolte Grappin!" Came the reply, and several vines of similar make of the one that hogtied me burst from the ground and bound my legs, wrapped and wrangling their way to my waist and securing me in the ground. I began tearing away at them, but more grew in every destroyed one's place.
"Récolte Giardino!" The vines now sprouted small buds along their folds, each one a dazzling arrange of each color of the rainbow. "Bloom!" The order was heard by the vines' additions and they obeyed, blooming into an array of flowers, only each let loose a cloud of spores. The combination of all together sent my senses into disarray, the haze of spores caused my lungs to heave, my stomach felt upside-down, my eyes watered, and I immersed into an immense coughing fit.
"Though my spores aren't as effective as a Smoke type's poisons…" Sergei re-emerged somewhere to my right, but through mist and my body's sudden revulsions I couldn't tell where from. "They're still potent…" He let off another his set of whinnish laughter.
"Such a shame...you devote yourself to such an ugly cause…if only you knew what these fools did to our kind…the travesties wrought by their governments…and yet you side with them…such a betrayal of our duties borders on heresy…" I could only tell he was right beside me as my eyes cleared away a bit and one opened enough to spot him. "You have chosen an eternal hell…the Cabal will still take you…there are always spots open in our laboratories!" He then whipped one of his arms back, hand splayed in a clawing fashion. "Landes Ratisser!" His hand then turned brown and thick, like the bark of a tree, fingers turning into gnarled root-like claws before making a horizontal cleave at my side, tearing a good chunk of my robe and the clothing underneath, still managing to scrape and tear my flesh.
Clutching my side I fell onto the ground, mouth agape in pain.
"Pitiful…" He said waltzing right up to me…before I flipped towards him from the ground and faced my fist at him.
"Tempest Shotgun!" The blast struck him head-on, reeling him back while I unloaded another round at the ground, easily severing the roots that bound me. Flipping away, I powered my body up and dashed for him. "Blitzkrieg!" Disappearing behind him, I grabbed my right fist with my left hand and pointed my elbow at the square of his back. "Surging Crusher!" Shoving forward, I crushed his spine…or I thought when it felt like I just hit a brick wall.
"Landes Armures." He laughed, turning back to leer at me, his face half-engrossed between tree and man, and the same bark-like crud covering his skin as when he had struck me with root-claw.
"Landes Giardino!" Several more blossoms appeared on his back upon my elbow's impact, showering me with more blinding pollen. Though I managed an intake of air before the assailed me, my eyes and nose soon began to become enflamed once again. This allowed Sergei to land a bark-covered palm strike into my abdomen, reeling me backwards as the breath of air I consumed came billowing out. Through tear-filled eyes, I made out his movement, a crescent kick to my chin, followed by a leg sweep that sent me on my back.
The impact acted like a Heimlich, allowing me to cough up the remains of poison as Sergei loomed over me, another root claw coming from right hand.
"Landes Ratisser!" I barely rolled out of a head-splicing shot as his claws dug into the ground. I managed to tumble myself into a kneeling position as the Plant Avatar tried to free his claws from the ground.
"Surging…" I fueled my entire upper body with power, and when it peaked, I charged for him. "Blitz!" I landed a punch right in his jaw, loosing his claws from the road. I began pummeling him, a lefty undercut to his chin, following by a hook to the cheek, and following up a twin Crusher to his gut, keeling him over from the impact. Forming a hammer fist with both hands, I crowned him on the top of his head, sending him face-first into the ground. Before I could cave in his skull with my shoe, he recovered and bounded backward.
I allowed him no time to begin a counter-attack, as I slammed the ground before me with my fist. "Tempest Shockwave!" The ripple of force raced right for him, catching him off-guard and sending him through a few buildings.
After my attack, I stood firm, and noticing the gaping tear in my robs, thinking of the extra clothing slowing me down, I discarded them in a flash, once again clad in my trademark vest and desert-camo shorts.
"Récolte Fléau!" The yell came from the rooftops above, Sergei standing as if nothing had happened to him during my attack. Another vine emerged down his arm, only this one was embedded with razor thorns the size of knives, with a snap of his wrist it sped towards me. Sidestepping the attack, I noticed the ground it struck had a neatly carved wound from the attack, and now he repeated it, whipping the thorny weapon in a frenzied flurry of attacks.
"Damn…all those Surging attacks barely hampered him…I need to get close enough to Falcon Punch him But that's easier said than done when he's waving that whip!" I thought, dodging another incoming lash that tore through a shop's structure like scissors through paper. "I could build up a Dragon Cannon…but it'd take up some time…and no guarantees that'll hit…" Rolling away from another attempt to turn me into confetti, a clank upon the ground where I landed reminded me of what I had strapped to my belt.
I darted out from the alleyway I had ducked into; I came into clear sight of the lunatic Avatar, yet again sending his flail at me full speed. Just as it was about to tear me apart, I held up my left arm to counter the attack, the vine easily wrapping around my Clawshot's bracer.
"Gotcha." I smirked as I pointed the Clawshot directly at him and fired away. I felt the vine go limp as he disconnected the cord from himself, but he didn't get away from the speed of the claw, it easily burying itself into his bark-skin upon his head.
"Around the World!" I yelled, retracting the chain to pull him off his feet before spinning around to slam him into the buildings around me, smashing him against and through the various buildings around us as I stored power in my right arm. I then launched him upward, before yanking him down, sending him crashing to the ground with a resounding thud before me.
"And now…" I pulled him towards me, retracting the claw from his face as he launched helplessly towards me, the claw spiraling back to its holster as he came within a few feet of me.
"Lightning…" I reeled back, knees bent. "Falcon…" The lightning coursing through my body untempered with raw power. "PUNCH!" I angled my attack diagonally just so I could reach his absurdly tall head, but my punch flew true. I could hear the bark on his face wither and crumble away as the explosion bubbled forth before detonating and sending us both rocketing away.
I skidded across the ground like a flat pebble on a stream, soon knocking into the side of building…Sergei fared no better…I could see the holes he sailed through leading all the way into a bypassing street.
"That got him…" I chuckled, flexing my arm and feeling the residual fatigue that accompanied the Falcon punch whenever I used it, a grandiose improvement of when I first used it unknowingly upon the bobcat near Kokoyashi.
The sounds of gunfire and the clash of metal against steel echoed in the air. "Damn…War's already started…better go see what I can do."
Just as I took a step in the opposite direction, I heard a screeching yell behind me.
"MYYY FAAAACCCEE!" The voice was panicked and high-pitched.
"You gotta be kiddin' me…" I turned slowly to face the same man who I just used my most powerful attack on, glaring at me from one of the holes he had barreled through, hands trembling as it held a small mirror.
"Yooouuuuu….." He seethed, holding down the mirror that had encompassed his face. "YOU RUINED MY BEAUTIFUL FACE!" A massive charred mark that reminded me of Zuko now was tattooed on his face, resembling a wing that started from the edge of his lip and engulfing the majority of his right cheek. He now trembled with unrestrained anger as he faced me, hatred marring his visage as he dug into a small fanny pack straddling his belt. "No more hope for you…you…you…" His eye tweaked a bit as he held a handful of seeds. "My beauties will feast on you! The Cabal will just have to go without any Lightning Avatars to work upon today!" He then threw the cluster of seeds around him, each embedding themselves in the soil or even the buildings themselves.
"JARDIN DE HORREURS!" Pink tendrils of energy lashed out from his hands to each of the seeds he strew across the area, and upon reaching one, the seed would begin humming as it became empowered by his magic. "Rise up, my beauties…" He sneered violently, as he leapt to a giant seed that resembled a walnut with fangs, picking up his instrument's case and brandishing its contents of a ebon-wood violin.
"Behold…my familiars! KAAHAHAHAHA!" Laughing like a madman, the seed suddenly burst into a new form, one that towered over me as its master rested firmly upon its formed head. A horrendous beast now stood where the seed once was, a face that bore only a massive maw filled with serrated blades for teeth, dozens of eyestalks littering the top of its head where its master now stood, and several deep-green tentacles acting as its mode of transport, slithering and racing along the ground as if to stretch after being cramped for so long.
"A…a Malboro…" I stammered in shock of the creature before me…but it wasn't alone. A pair of twirling creatures with bodies that resembled flying giant pink flowers hovered about in the airspace around the summoned abomination, with twin club-like appendages drooping beneath them; two cartoonish eyes rested upon bell-shaped bodies as a strew of Weepinbells flocked to battle upon the rooftops; vines bristling with spikes reared up like snakes poised to strike, red ball-shaped heads adorned with white spots, with only mouths lined with razor fangs being its only feature, the Piranha Plants licked their chops hungrily as they slunk around; massive humanoid globs of moss and algae formed behind me, drudging along like zombie gorillas upon their knuckles, red glowing eyes fixated upon me as they advanced.
Sergei had brought along a small army of plant creatures, all seeking to exact their lord's revenge as they closed in around me. Powering up to fend them off, I could think of only one thing…I wished I had asked Sanji for another smoke before I came here…
End of Chapter
AN: Bwahahaha! Time for some serious fightin'!
Khurt: Why am I always getting stuck fighting these really strong dudes…you just love seeing me get my butt whupped.
Rabb: Oh, quit yer bitchin….your next opponent will be easy I promise!
Khurt: Really? Who?
Rabb: I really shouldn't say…
Khurt: Oh come on! Who?
Rabb: Oh alright…I'll summon him. *twirls fingers*
Ragnaros: BY FIRE BE PURGED!
Khurt:….I hate you so much, Rabb. *gets crushed by Sulfuras*
Ragnaros: ANYTHING ELSE, RABB?
Rabb: Nah…that'll shut him up for awhile.
