To the battleground! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. If I did, I would be busy drawing instead of writing Fanfictions
53: The Frenzied Flurry
"Report has just come in of a group of Plague Pirates coming up on us!"
"How many are coming?"
"At least two score!"
"Captain Orion, what should we do?"
The Captain of the band of rebels in the Ornea Square—an isle close to that of Sylar City—Captain Orion by name, rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Finally, he looked at the and said, "Get ready to strike!"
The ragtag group of rebels cheered as they grabbed their weapons and stood prepared, waiting for the evident strike of the group of Plague Pirates. Orion turned towards one member and asked, "I hope you can hold your own in a fight."
"Yohohoho, don't worry about me!" Brook the Skeleton laughed. "I've done quite a lot of it in my day!"
Orion pulled out his trademark blade and smirked. "Good, then I have a better use for you than just a foot soldier…"
The Plague Pirates were walking around, cautious of the area they were entering. It looked like a rather small village, and where they were entering was an open courtyard with white tiles laid beneath them and a large intricate fountain in the middle of it all. Surrounding the entire courtyard was a solid block of two-story houses, almost all of them with closed windows; this is what concerned them the most.
The head of the pack looked and saw a rather strange sight. Sitting right at the head of the fountain was a skeleton wearing a suit, keeled over with a violin in one hand and a cane in the other. The forty men moved forward cautiously and the leader touched the skeleton.
"Hey, don't do that, he's fuckin' dead!" one of the men said. "You'll catch a disease or something!"
"That's a laugh, coming from someone who serves under a pirate who uses the Flu-Flu Fruit!" one of them yelled from the group.
Just then, Brook tilted his head and looked at the group. "Yohoho, why it looks like I've got some visitors here today!"
The entire group turned their attention to the talking skeleton, as they obviously reacted with shock. "What the fuck are you?"
"Why, I'm Brook the Skeleton, and it's a pleasure to meet you!"
"Why are you a skeleton and still alive?" they all seemed to yell at once.
Brook shook an uninterested hand towards them in a shooing motion, and stated, "Don't worry about that. I'm actually a traveling musician. Would you like to hear my music?"
Before anyone could say anything, Brook took their answer as a yes and began to play his violin. "Lullaby Parry!" he said, and before anyone knew it, all of the men felt drowsy and fell asleep almost instantly.
Brook laughed at this as Orion and his men appeared out of the surrounding buildings and went to disarm and capture the men. "Yohoho! Music is power!" Brook said with a laugh.
"Thanks for your help," Orion said. "You really saved us a lot of bloodshed."
Before Brook could respond, he saw what looked to be a few straggling Plague Pirates peering out in the distance to see the sight. They immediately recognized what it was and began to flee, hoping to report.
"Hey, wait!" Brook yelled as he began to chase after the few culprits. "I won't let you get away! I can run faster than any normal human because I'm all bones! Yohohoho!"
"Wait Brook!" one of the rebels yelled.
"Leave him be," Orion commanded. "He can handle himself, and besides—" He kicked at a few fallen men who were being tied up, "—we've got more important things to worry about right now."
— — —
Captain Ralston paced back and forth near Myndir Village as the engineers and mechanics were putting the finishing touches on the final last stand for the rebels in case—as Julia put it so eloquently—the "shit hits the fan." He knew the responsibility of being the last bastion of hope for the entire revolution, and he took that roll very seriously. So just to be on the safe side, he put another order in with Julia to get a shipment of lumber and steel.
What he didn't expect, however, was for this strange woman to be bringing it to him.
Robin had delivered it as ordered, and after Ralston divvied up the supplies as they were needed, Robin said that Beau told her to report to him after. Ralston by his very nature was a superstitious man, and when he saw Robin coming in carrying the supplies with all of those extra arms, he immediately distrusted her.
"I don't know how you can help," he said flatly. "If you want, you can just wait around here. I'd imagine we're gonna be in for a bit of a fight when everything goes down."
"Fine," Robin said, not really caring much for this man, or their mission. She was simply holding up her end of the bargain with Beau so she could find Luffy and the others when all of this was said and done.
She didn't even get twenty minutes in before scouts spotted the first patrol of Plague Pirates coming. Ralston ordered everyone to their stations and told them to employ the first line of defense for Myndir.
Being the last bastion of hope, Ralston had taken special precautions to keep people away for as long as possible. The first line of defense was what the rebels called "Ironsides," and he ordered his men to get into position.
The Ironsides were set right at the border of Myndir Village and took the form as a set harmless-looking bamboo sticks, but what the enemies didn't see was that there were a set of strings attached to the end and holding the end of the strings were a few rebels.
"Alright men, standby," Ralston said on a den-den mushi. "In three…two…one!"
With that, all of the rebels pulled the string, and quick as lightning, a series of sharpened iron shafts flew out and immediately found themselves buried in the chests of the hapless Plague Pirates. Surprise hit the front-runners, as they coughed up blood and simply fell to the floor.
Undeterred by this, the pirates pressed on, moving past the ten or so dead men who fell victim to the Ironsides. Ralston expected this, and walked by Robin.
"Now's your time to shine," he said bluntly. "Follow me."
Robin obeyed as they moved down into the basement of one of the houses and through the wall, Robin could see a large burrowed tunnel. They walked through it (along with several other rebels) and Robin stared as she saw what seemed to be a brilliant array of underground tunnels.
"Remarkable," she commented.
Ralston smirked. "We use this to get around undetected. So far, it's been a massive help!"
They stopped at what looked to be a dead-end and saw around twenty or so rebels squatting there, looking out of slits to see what's going on up top. "What's the report?" Ralston asked.
"We got them coming, and fast!" one said.
Ralston took out a pair of pistols and smiled. "Good; let them come!" He turned towards Robin. "You ready?"
"For what?" she asked.
"Just wait and you'll see!"
The Plague Pirates kept moving, and when they were a good three feet away, Ralston ordered the attack, and almost immediately, the ground right in front of the pirates disappeared ("Simply a clever guise," Ralston said to Robin) and all of the rebels came out yelling with weapons in their hands.
The pirates took by surprise recoiled for a second, but it didn't take long for them to recover and attack, but that second was all the rebels needed to get the advantage. Robin turned out to be a massive benefit (much to Ralston's surprise), and within a minute or two, the group of Plague Pirates were either dead or captured.
"That'll teach anyone to try and penetrate Myndir!" scoffed Ralston.
Then, his miniature den-den mushi went off and he picked it up. "Captain!" the voice on the other end said.
"What is it?"
"We've spotted another intruder!"
"More pirates?"
"No, it's a single person—and a female to boot! She seems to be wielding some kind of baton. What should we do?"
"Baton?" Robin repeated, then it dawned on her. "Don't attack her!" she immediately shouted to Ralston.
"What?"
"I think she's a friend," Robin explained. "Let me go and confirm it."
After a few seconds, Ralston nodded and Robin was away, hoping the woman with the baton was indeed Nami.
— — —
Zoro wasn't known to be the best with his directions. After Luffy ordered the crew to split up, he just went running randomly in one direction, and soon enough (though not quite soon enough for Zoro), he came across a stone bridge connecting two isles and crossed it. There, he was angered to see more woodland, but knew he couldn't do anything and began to go through it.
"This better be the way to the Hydrox Isle," he muttered under his breath, when in fact he was going the exact opposite way of it.
After a few minutes of traveling through the woods, it began to clear up a bit, but trees still surrounded him on all sides. Then, he began to smell and all-too-familiar smell, and after hearing a particular noise, he immediately ducked.
His instincts turned out correct as a sword flew by right where his neck would have been, and imbedded itself into the tree right in front of Zoro. He immediately dove out of the way and pulled out one of his own swords. He looked upon his enemy and saw none other than Shiryu of the Rain standing there, smirking at Zoro and pulling his sword out of the tree.
"How'd you know I was behind you?" he asked with the same smirk. "I thought I was extra careful not to make noise."
"I'm way too familiar with the smell of smoke," Zoro said, thinking of Sanji, and he continued, "and being a swordsman myself, I'm also way too familiar with the sound of a sword being brought out of its sheath. In short, you were quiet, but not quiet enough."
Shiryu kept his smile and simply said, "Such a shame…You must be Roronoa Zoro of the Straw Hat Crew."
"Oh, you know me?" questioned Zoro. "I guess my bounty really is getting me noticed."
Shiryu shook his head. "Didn't know you through that, sorry. I only recognize you because Victor showed me all of the Straw Hat crew and told us that if we see you, then we have to kill you on sight."
"Victor must be pretty frightened of us," shot back Zoro.
"Indeed."
Zoro took out all three of his blades and said, "If he ordered you to fight to the death, then I guess we have no choice but to fight."
Shiryu's cigar smoke drifted into the air as he responded with, "I guess you're right…"
Zoro put on his bandana and stuck Wado Ichimonji in his mouth. "Then may the best man win!"
Without wasting another breath, they clashed blades.
— — —
"I said put me down!"
Boa Hancock finally got the better of Sanji's stamina, and with one more swift kick to his back, he finally jolted and fell to the ground, rubbing his back and freeing Hancock.
"Ouch! Watch it will ya?"
"Hmph!" Hancock scoffed. "If you weren't a member of Luffy's crew, I would turn you into stone right now."
"Thanks for the consideration," replied Sanji humorlessly.
Hancock looked around and saw what amounted to an open meadow. "Now where are we and tell me how to get back; I have to help Luffy!"
Sanji lit a cigarette and said, "Hell if I know how to get back. I just ran my ass off to get outta that damned forest."
"What?" was her reply. "How could you be so idiotic?"
"Maybe you should have been paying attention," Sanji stated flatly.
Hancock responded angrily. "I would have if you weren't carrying me the whole way!"
"Which was my pleasure by the way," Sanji said, temporarily reverting to his old form, turning his eyes into hearts.
Hancock landed a swift kick to the side of his face, sending him to the floor. "How dare you? Don't even think about anything like that!"
Sanji wiped the blood off of his face and asked himself, "Why are the most beautiful ones always the strongest?"
Hancock took offense to this and began to move towards him in order to strike him again. "Now listen you! While I may be the most beautiful woman in the world, I happen to think all men are scum—except for that man—who are—"
She couldn't get any farther as the distance between her and Sanji was immediately cut off when something flew out of the ground with a sharp object in an attempt to kill Hancock.
"Hah!"
She immediately leapt back and Sanji immediately leapt into action, as the person landed on the ground to reveal drills for arms. He kept his back turned to them.
"And here I thought I'd done enough work for him, but no, Victor needed me to help weed out some of the enemies," he said to himself. "So why am I here trying to kill two youngsters just because Victor told me they were on his personal hit list?"
He turned around to reveal himself to be Pizarro, and Hancock recognized him almost immediately.
"You're…" she started.
"Who's he?" Sanji demanded.
"He's the Corrupt King Abalo Pizarro," she answered. "He was a famous leader who's deeds were so awful they were simply erased from history."
Pizarro smirked. "Nice to know someone recognizes me. Come to think of it, were you at the Battle of Marineford?"
Hancock remained silent.
"I see…" Pizarro said, before his two arms (currently turned into drills) began to move again, and he immediately dove for the ground, burrowing into it and disappearing almost immediately.
"What the…" Sanji started.
"Be careful!" Hancock warned. "He's eaten the Drill-Drill Fruit, and can dig through anything with ease!"
Sanji lit a new cigarette and said, "Drill-Drill Fruit, eh? What a pain…"
Before anything else could be said, Pizarro appeared again with his drills ready to strike, this time they were aimed towards Sanji. He quickly dodged them and got away with a scratch on his arm. Pizarro landed a few feet away and chuckled.
"Not bad kid, I might get a little fun out of this yet…"
— — —
Usopp quickly dove to the ground as a stray bullet flew by him. He let out a startled cry and tried to crawl away. The Plague Pirates and a few rebels were fighting, and he could tell by the noise that they were pretty close.
"I just wanna get to the Hydrox Isle…" he muttered.
As soon as he got up, he saw one pirate running towards him, out of breath and glancing backwards. Usopp barely had time to notice him and the pirate didn't notice Usopp at all, and due to that, he tripped over him almost immediately and hit the ground with a grunt.
Before Usopp could say anything, he heard: "Yohohoho! You can't escape me!"
Then, bursting through the underbrush was none other than Brook the Skeleton, and Usopp was quite glad to see him.
"Brook!" he cried with joy.
"Huh? Usopp!" Brook said, immediately forgetting about the pirate who was now scrambling away.
"You're on this island too?" Usopp was forced to ask.
Brook only nodded, but before anything else could be said, they heard a massive laugh.
"Ha ha ha ha ha! You can't kill me!"
They heard several gunshots, and decided to go and investigate. They peeked through to see Basco Shot standing there, a pistol in one hand and a jug of alcohol in the other, peering over several wounded rebels, laughing and mocking them.
"Shit, he looks tough!" Usopp said. "Best not to mess with him and go straight to the Hydrox Isle. What do you think Br—"
"Stop right there with that behavior!" Brook demanded, already out in the open and pointing his sword towards him.
Usopp felt that he could cry at that moment.
"Who's this?" Basco asked with a chuckle.
— — —
"Robin! I can't believe it's you!" Nami said, immediately hugging the relieved Robin. "I can't believe you're on this island too!"
"I'm surprised we found each other in such a strange way," Robin smiled. "Either way, I'm glad to see you again. How'd you get here?"
"We split up from Luffy," she explained, "and I went wandering through the forest, and next thing I know is that I'm here."
"Well, it's good that—"
Before Robin could finish, a massive spear came flying towards them spinning like a buzz-saw. They both noticed this and dropped to the floor. The spear continued until it hit a few scattered trees (shattering their trunks in the process) and stopped. Both women looked up to see someone leap over them and land by the spear, picking it up easily.
"Who in the…" Nami started.
"Murunfufufu," they heard, and looked to see Catarina Devon there, spear in one hand, iron-woven net in the other. "Sorry, I couldn't resist a little sneak attack."
"Do you know who this is Robin?" asked Nami.
"Don't know, and don't care," was Robin's response. "All I know is that I want to get rid of her as fast as possible so we can go and find the rest of the crew."
Nami gripped her Perfect Clima-Tact and said, "Sounds good to me!"
Devon chuckled. "You kiddies think you can take me? That's a laugh!"
Both Robin and Nami didn't even give a response, as they both immediately went into action, hoping to dispatch of Devon quickly.
Showdown on the Isles!
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