Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece
I don't think I got to post this chapter on Christmas, maybe Boxing Day. I was in a rush to edit and post it. Thank you CuddlyChristina.
X_X_X_X
Unsheathing her weapon, Yukino charged right for one of them, delivering a slew of quick slashes to him. Another attempted to attack her, but was caught off-guard and was stabbed in the torso.
Problem was, the ones she slashed were hardly damaged. Although she was skilled with a blade, it didn't matter when she knew nothing of her enemies. She would be chewed by the neck if Hardy didn't jump in in the form of a bear gummy. His whole body was chewed on, mauled at the neck and his right arm, but now made out of bubblegum the bites didn't even hurt him.
"That's your transformation...? Odd, but interesting..." Yukino said when Hardy took the bites for her. "If they bite, do they suck blood or something?" Henry asked.
Hardy didn't answer. He reached his unbitten bubblegum paw on his hat. With his hat, he pulled something out. To his surprise, it was a wooden stake.
"A stake? What for?" Etoile asked.
Hardy knew what it was for, he morphed his arm back to a human's arm and drived the stake through the heart of one of the feral beasts.
It let out a piercing scream, before it dissolved into small, tiny jewels, to Hardy and the others's surprise. Yukino started to retreat.
"Everyone retreat for your lives!" She shouted.
"Wait! What about the people that were traveling?!" Charlotte asked.
Charlotte got her answer from the sound of a submarine crew member being pushed down and bitten by two of these creepy things.
"You sure they're coming with us? Or are we just going to leave them behind?" Henry asked, his teeth chattering in fear.
"For the love of fuck!" Fritz yelled, tired of the complaining his sentimental nakama had. With one click of his legs, he sped towards the monsters and stabbed them with his automatic nail gun. They turned into gems. "There, I killed three of them. Now move your whiny ass before more show up!"
Charlotte nodded along with the others, before following Yukino and Mikio out of the train. Fritz stared at the crew minus a few unnamed workers who were bitten ferally by the creatures.
"Took you dolts long enough." he said to them once they found safety. "So now what? Do you think we should find a way to stop those goons?" Mikio asked.
"Hell yeah." Charlotte cheered.
"Would you assholes give me a minute to catch my breath?" Fritz barked. "I'm too sober to be running around like this."
"Ugh...one of you pirates is a constant drinker?" Yukino asked.
A beat followed, before Charlotte replied, "It's...kind of a long story."
The beasts were scratching as well banging on the door all to the displeasure of the nakama that wanted cigarettes and alcohol. He waved his hand, a loud gasp of pain escaped before the beasts stopped banging.
Henry nearly flinched. "What on earth was that?!" he asked.
"What'cha think it is?" Fritz said, peeved and cynical. "Don't worry, my power to control subatomic particles and maybe even cells and tissue from how well my powers work, helped put an end to...not much of what we were facing but not a bad amount either."
"Now that is probably something I've never seen before!" Charlotte exclaimed.
"Interesting ability, there, sir." Yukino said, cupping her chin with a small smile.
"Don't call me sir, just call me Fritz." Fritz told her.
"Okay, Fritz. When do you think would be a good time to leave this hold?" She asked.
"My best guess is surface this train and swim away." He replied.
"Sounds reasonable enough." she replied with a nod.
Fritz himself finally opened the door. The outside was full of carnage and dead bodies sprawled on the corridor.
"Well, looks like the enemy is all done for." he curtly spoke.
"I feel so bad for us leaving the civilians behind." Henry said. "Stop bemoaning about it, and pay close attention to what's going on!" Fritz told him with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
Fritz took one step over one of the shipmate's, puncture holes in his neck from where the beast bit him. Fritz knew something was up but he feigned his guard was down. Some of his nakama and living shipmates screamed in terror or shuddered in silence when the thought to be dead shipmate growled and grabbed Fritz by his leg.
"Predictable." Fritz told the growling mindless beast before his powers dissolved his face leaving nothing but a visible skull and black sought.
He collapsed to the ground, and Fritz kicked him away. "So now what? Any ideas?" Mikio asked.
"We stick to the plan, princess." He barked.
Mikio sighed, before he and Yukino followed Fritz, Charlotte and the others to perhaps a more safer area.
Fritz had a lot to think about being the one in the lead for once.
"Hey, guys! Miss me?" Donna's voice asked. This prompted the group to notice as she took out what appeared to be cannon and harpoon guns. Within seconds, she aimed right at the train, as the ship was still attached to it.
"Move, dammit!" Frisk shouted at everyone just gawking because Donna made some sounds.
The gang ended up fleeing so as to avoid getting hit. However, something was very amiss about this particular Donna.
Charlotte didn't even hear the echo of ballistics firing from her ship.
The attacks kept coming, until the decoy Donna decided enough was enough. She had to take drastic measures in her own hands, both figuratively and literally speaking.
"Donna, I know your on this ship. Can you help erase this abomination from the sea, please." She begged.
"Oh, should I?" Donna retorted towards Charlotte. It wouldn't take long for here start bending part of the ship, which got everyone to notice on the spot.
"Too strong! Your going to kill all of us!" Hardy shouted.
"Good. Killing abominations and pirates is a golden net over a Sea King."
"Hey, you sure as hell ain't the real Donna!" Charlotte exclaimed. This caused the decoy Donna to grin at her statement.
"No, I am the real Donna. The one you killed using my name was merely a decoy. Now you know and now you die."
"What the-?!" Charlotte asked. The decoy Donna's clever fibbing proved to be successful as she looped the ship in various directions, before finally crushing it. Charlotte and her nakama were able to narrowly escape certain death, but weren't happy knowing their ship was destroyed.
The danger is wasn't over for Hardy. Having eaten a devil fruit, he couldn't swim.
X_X_X_X
While chaos was ensuing onboard the train, the real Donna sat still in her office writing on her desk, until a dimension opened up and her husband Kurt walked out.
"Hello honey." Donna replied. 'How is our daughter doing in dimension 24 school? Transitioning or rebelling?"
"I'm afraid something isn't right with her..." was Kurt's response.
"That's too bad. Is she having problems adapting to the new environment?" Donna asked.
"No. She seems to be less docile and more ravenous towards those rocks with cores inside on the ground."
Donna simply frowned.
"She is though doing well academically. Maybe she just needs to grow in there...just kidding, she's actually doing pretty well no side effects."
Donna's frown suddenly turned into a smile as she let out a small laugh. "You had me worried there for a moment." she said.
"Yes. I kill myself. How are you doing chasing after next generation pirates, sweetie?"
"I've been doing decently well." Donna replied.
"That's great. I hope you haven't lost too many decoys. Units are people too."
"I hope so, too." Donna replied.
X_X_X_X
Charlotte was almost crushed but she was saved unlike her friends who would be crushed if she didn't jump in to save them. Only one person had the power to still time like a berry on a ladder.
"Grandpa."
Charlotte knew he could hear her but wouldn't let his prescence be known.
"Are you there?" he called out. His words were enough to make her smile amidst the pain of almost getting crushed.
But just as soon as the train was repaired by his power of rewinding time, he was gone.
"Grandpa? Where are you?" Charlotte asked, but to no avail. She looked around, and could only find Hardy and the others, already recovering from the attack. "Was that really Donna? Because I don't think she sounds like that." he asked.
Charlotte had a good chuckle at their observation.
"Probably not, I suppose." she told him. "What just happened? Our ship got nearly wrecked!" Etoile asked.
"Were you asleep his whole time?" Charlotte was very unsure of why her nakama were so brazen. "We were almost killed by the wife of the most powerful Shichibukai in my dad's journey but we were saved by the second strongest himself who happens to be my grandfather and who I only know because he liked to visit me when I was a little fat girl."
"Really? Do you know anything else about him?" Fritz asked.
"According to my godmother, Eiza, he's to blame for all the bizarre and out of control things that happened with my father. The reason my dad settled down instead of seeing what is through the Red Line."
"I thought the marines were the cause of that." Henry said.
"Well, they're now, apparently." Charlotte told him, causing him to scratch his head in confusion.
Mikio didn't stand ideally by and watch the crew talk about a relative who may or may not be around, she grabbed her pants pulling it up to look like a cape and bowed before them.
"Thank you for risking your lives to make sure as many trainmates could escape with their lives. Myself and their families are indebted to you..."
"Call us the Monster Pirates EXP." Charlotte said with her thumb up.
"Uh, okay..." he replied, almost blushing in embarrassment, much to his sister's delight as Yukino chuckled.
Once again, the siblings bowed their heads to honor the crew.
"Thank you so much, Miss Charlotte." Yukino replied. "Yeah, thank you!" Mikio added with a goofy smile.
"Your welcome, but thank Fritz. He knew what was going on more than I did."
Yukino and Mikio both turned their attention, and bowed their heads. Fritz smiled a bit, appreciating their thanks.
"I think I like being praised once in awhile." Fritz said.
"I thought so, too." Charlotte replied, smiling at him.
"Good. Now let's get the hell out of here."
She nodded, and the group would quickly take off.
Fritz believed they had nothing to fret about now. He was very wrong in that regard.
X_X_X_X
Henry was the one manning the helm while his nakama were in their beds or hammocks getting needed rest after a long day of almost dying. This wasn't going to be a peaceful not; neck was already colored in the red smudge of death.
He let out a long, drawn-out sigh, expressing as to how truly pooped he was during the situation involving the gem creatures.
"First we go to a train and now we sail to an island with a queen who married a devil fruit user who commands her army and she married his son too."
"Excuse me, but who said that?" Henry asked.
"I did. Charlotte was able to relay all that to me." Etoile replied.
Etoile walked out wearing her nightgown. It was dark night lavender with frills of white laced in a circlet on the bottom and top, her hair was combed out to look puffy yet glossy. Her eyes twinkled in the moonlight with this one blotted spot Henry actually thought was pretty cute.
"What makes a woman devote herself to two men...father and son no less." Henry bemoaned.
"Well it's not like she's related to the two of them." Etoile began trying to make sense of something Henry never asked her to. "Maybe she was just loved by both father and son in an age where any girl can go after a father or a son. It's like buying a parfait with chocolate sauce until you realize you could have bought it with nuts, only to think maybe the nuts could just be purchased somewhere else. Or maybe...it's the sex."
Henry was without words and looking at the once infamous werewolf shut in expand on something he didn't want to hear. "O-Okay. So...is there anyone you like?"
"Hardy." She replied without falter.
"Okay. Why do you like him?"
"He is treated like a bag boy but those hands of his could lift the world if he wanted to. He also kind of looks like my father, but in a more chiseled and non-related way. Do you think he has a thing for Charlotte? I mean, they are childhood friends and all."
"Their not really childhood friends. Hardy has only been with Charlotte for a year. Their more..."
Henry tasted something on his lips that seemed to be coming from the window. He only dismissed it as Fritz awake and smoking, but then...the most terrible sound was heart.
KABOOM!
A loud and ear piercing explosion was heard inside Fritz's room.
"What was that?!" he asked, his eyes blinking in confusion as he and Etoile turned their attention to the ship.
Henry ran like a rabbit heading towards Fritz. As he made his way inside, he saw Fritz on the ground holding his mouth and muffling in agony.
He couldn't figure out what he was saying, as he was letting out very muffled expletives. "Oh no...!" Henry muttered. "Something terrible just happened to Fritz! Please come quick!" he exclaimed. Charlotte nodded and soon followed Henry to Fritz. She would locate some beer on his table and brought it over to him.
"Fritz, try to take a sip of your beer." she said.
Fritz opened his mouth to guzzle down the beer before he reacted in a loud and upset way.
"I can't taste...I CAN'T TASTE MY BEER!"
Charlotte was speechless. All she could think was how terrible this turn of events was. But maybe this wasn't the worst thing to happen to a crew, her father had worse.
"Just...who did this?!" Etoile asked as she and Hardy entered the room.
Fritz moaned in rage at the agonizing pain and the assholes who were his nakama not helping him. This prompted Hardy to say to Charlotte and the others, "Don't just stand there gawking, we've gotta help Fritz out!"
Hardy took off his hat before pulling out a bag of ice he used to help keep Fritz's mouth cool. Fritz soon began to calm down thanks to Hardy's efforts.
If Fritz could speak like himself, he would tell Hardy how much of a great friend he was.
The others did everything they could to help Fritz out, with Etoile asking Charlotte, "I may have already asked, but I really want to ask again: Who or what caused this to happen?"
"Maybe it was just Fritz having a midnight smoke and drink combination despite us warning him...or someone sabotaged his room. Look for traps." Charlotte commanded.
"Then we'd better investigate. I think there might be someone that has invaded this ship and that we were blissfully unaware." Henry said.
"Don't worry about my tastebuds." Fritz assured in a sarcastic way. "I'll just start using needles to inject things in my body."
Charlotte, slightly unaware of his sarcasm, replied, "Yeah...that smarts."
Watching the search unfold was a short silver haired boy who had a loud yet calming voice always talking to him inside his head.
"So it looks like it worked." the voice told him.
"I thought so; it's too bad they've probably remedied the whole damn thing." the boy replied.
"Relax. Although they manage to overcome adversity and tribulation, their still arrogant teenagers and a brazen old man who can't manage to settle down and think things through. This will surely slow their progress down enough for us to make our next move. That blue haired book writing witch will be proud."