Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece
I worked pretty long on getting this chapter finished, with help from CuddlyChristina of course, so I hope you nice readers enjoy this new chapter.
X_X_X_X
Henry tried acting useful for once taking out his rifle and pointing it at the riceball monsters, but Etoile blocked it with a detached bloody hand.
"You'll shoot Fritz that way."
Fritz breathed very hard before a small wind explosion knocked away all the riceballs.
"Huh? What was that?" Pete asked.
As the riceballs began scattering together and attempting to flee, Fritz clutched his face as Etoile went to check up on him. Henry added, "Just what on earth made those critters freak out?"
"It must be this place. It's cursed." Fritz said, even though he didn't hear the explanation Vein gave him he still had a supernatural vibe in here.
"Yeah, but also, you probably missed something about Vein." Pete replied, mentioning Vein's supernatural vibe.
"Who the hell is Vein?!" Fritz yelled at the robot.
"I don't know. People keep mentioning his name, even saying he's in the room, but I have never seen this proclaimed Killer of All Except Pure Virgins."
"Killer of All Except Pure Virgins...strange title to have, but still..." Pete said, shaking his head in confusion over such a title.
Henry walked with his rifle up high and his eyes looking at the walls and ceiling. He also heard a deep rumble.
"Um...is there anybody out there?" he managed to ask, wondering as to where the rumbling came from as his teeth chattered.
He found his answer, and it landed on his shoulder. Henry let out a very shrill scream as something was jumping on his shoulder and pulling his hair.
Etoile saw it first, a sharp tooth cookie with tentacles around it.
"AAH! Get them off me!" Henry yelled as he ran around like crazy.
"Are these supposed to be food creatures?!" she asked.
Etoile was proven to be wrong when white spiders with one big glowing eye climbed down from the ceiling, Etoile's face turning completely white as her teeth clenched to her eyes.
"E-Eh...bugs!"
"This place must be crawling with these things!" Pete exclaimed. "Say, Fritz, do you think we can figure out a way to get past them?" he asked.
"I sure as hell do. Stop being a whiny scared red kitty and turn into your enormous werewolf form. And Henry, use the butt of your rifle to smash those cookies!"
Henry acted first slamming the butt of his rifle through the razor sharp teeth of one cookie. At the same time, Etoile shrugged, before morphing into her wolf form and began to attack the cookie creatures with her claws.
The bugs crawled towards her, their legs creating balls of cobwebs with every step. At last one grabbed Etoile from behind, but she shook it off.
She was able to grab it and throw it onto the ground, almost smashing it. At the same time, Henry had opened fire on the creatures.
All that was left was Fritz watching them fight back while he stood next to Pete.
"You alright?" Pete asked.
"I'm...fine, thanks for asking." Fritz replied.
"By the way, are you sure we can just stand there and spectate? I don't think it's a bad idea to join in the fight." Pete said.
It wasn't that Fritz wanted Henry and Etoile to fight alone-he just didn't want to get involved with cookies and spiders. However, as the frigid trickles of power came on his hand, he joined the charged right for the creatures, slashing at a few of them with his sword with quick precision.
It technically wasn't his sword nor was it even a sword. His sword of course being his powers creating a cluster of energy manifesting into a sword still slaying down his enemies.
Etoile and the others noticed this 'sword', and were taken by surprise at how it was helping him eradicate the enemy.
When the enemies were taken care of, Fritz used his left hand to tightly squeeze the hand that defeated the strange malicious beings. He was trying to suppress some kind of power he didn't want to implode around his friends.
"Why on earth is your hand glowing like that?" Henry asked, to which Fritz looked over at him. "I've been harnessing this strange ability since Charlotte and the rest of us banded together." he replied.
He didn't tell them how it could dangerously harm him and unleash energy strong even to blow up an island if he used it thoughtlessly.
"I'm not gonna go into detail, so let's press on." Fritz added.
Fritz waited until Henry and Etoile were walking in front of him-their eyes searching for any traps or a passageway-and after he was sure they were distracted he teared up a little. Fritz didn't want to die but without his sense of taste he couldn't control his powers as well as he used to.
"Hey, is there something wrong?" Pete asked as he instantly noticed Fritz.
"It's no concern of yours, robot. Just keep a watchful eye on those two."
As Pete nodded, Fritz wondered why he suddenly cared about their safety.
X_X_X_X
Vein said the final challenge was for Charlotte alone and vanished into thin air.
"This is as far as I walk with you. Behind that door you will find the boss, and although he is easy pickings for me he is a good experience for a young captain like you, Charlotte." Vein said.
Vein said the final challenge was for Charlotte alone and vanished into thin air.
"Huh...so it's only me that has to deal with this guy?" Charlotte said to herself, cupping her chin in thought.
Her fingers turned into claws while she whimpered outloud hoping someone would hear her cry for her. Her cry went to deaf ears as she opened the door and saw a man with silver fur jutting out of his back, like a hood that couldn't reach his head.
"So what brought you here?" she wanted to ask. Yet she did vaguely remember the time she briefly spoke while in her wolf form.
"I don't want anything bad to happen to you...not now...not now."
Vein vanished from her sight. Charlotte was confused, he sounded like he was warning her yet there was a threatening tone in his voice. She was in a state of confusion in a pitch dark room. Worse part then being distracted...she wasn't alone.
Charlotte wasn't completely blind due to her animal eyes. She could make out a skinny woman with white skin, yellow eyes, thin hair combed on both sides to show her forehead, frilly circlet made of sapphire around her upper body while her lower body was covered in brown pants with two black thong straps sticking out on both sides of her midriff. She had a scorpion-esque appendage sticking out of her behind, and she was glaring at Charlotte...and then she readied her tail to plunge into Charlotte.
Charlotte noticed the tail and narrowly dodged the woman's attack.
"It's you, the daughter of the pirate king. Tell me...where is Fishman Karate Momo?" She went from hostile to interrogating while Charlotte was prancing from left to right.
"I won't tell you where my uncle is."
"If you continue to refuse, then I have no other choice but to kill you." the woman told Charlotte.
Charlotte showed her razor sharp teeth and took out her claws. She was ready for an all too familiar frenzy on the rude woman.
"Like I care what moves you try on me."
She charged for her, clawing at her with several strikes to the upper body area. But the scorpion-esque tail was good at blocking Charlotte's flurry of scratches.
The wolf woman was flabbergasted as to how she was able to deflect her moves. This distraction allowed her to coil her tail around Charlotte and fling her through the wall. After seven minutes of pitch darkness, the sunlight through the wall hurt.
Charlotte had been knocked out, but groaned as she felt the sunlight dawn over her. Once her retina's blocked out some of the glaring sunlight, she saw the bloodcurdling sight of the scorpion lady with some weird vendetta; she was after a Fishman in a wheelchair.
"I'll turn you inside out, and keep you alive with my injections until the venom loses its regenerating effects...unless you tell me where Momo is."
"Go to hell, why do you even want to find my uncle?" Charlotte snapped.
"He killed my father...a Shichibukai back when they were a split organization...Razor the Steel Scorpion."
"Your father? But how?" Charlotte asked out of slight confusion.
"How do you think? He wasn't just a robot roaming around sadistically killing people, he was brutal to everyone except his family. We were like his prize pigs, and he liked to feed us like them. That ended when your uncle shoved a metal pipe through his brain-we lost our home, our wealth, and people were scared to be in the same room as my mother and I. For that, I want to kill that loathsome Fishman."
"Well your father killed my Uncle Momo's mother, teacher, and dearest friend in cold blood with a vile look of glee on his face. My uncle just got his revenge and now...he has no one."
"Well someone has helped him. He wasn't in Water 7 and he wasn't in Skypiea. My intel was wrong, but surely he told you where he's trying to escape to."
"Truthfully, those were the only places I've met him so if he's not in either of them I can't help you-I never was gonna but now you know I have more than just your despicable to refute your demands."
She was so mad she grabbed Charlotte by her head and bashed her against the wall. With every bang, the pirate captain became more feral.
Charlotte wound up using her claws to scratch and maul at the scorpion woman, mainly in the lower area, as well as her stomach.
Her tail helped her pounce back, kicking Charlotte in the face. Their reflexes were so similarly fast it was uncanny, punching each other in the face. Their fight would go on long and heated, feral girl versus predator girl—and then a white skin male appeared.
"Langicla, that's enough. Charlotte leave her alone."
That of course didn't stop them from mauling at each other's necks. Since reason didn't work; he swung a
giant pair of scissors.
"Listen to me, Death and your uncle slash guardian!"
This prompted Langicla to eventually notice, as did Charlotte.
She couldn't believe her eyes. From the tales of her fathers' adventures, he had one nakama who wasn't with him long, and this man before her was that nakama.
"Uncle Umbrage!" She exclaimed.
"I am not here to talk to you, Charlotte, nor is my name Umbrage anymore. Langicla, don't you want to take a breath and talk to your cousin?"
"She's not my cousin and she's not related to you, and your not my father your my guardian!" She yelled.
"It doesn't matter to me." was his blunt reply.
"Umbrage or whatever you call yourself, you may be my uncle but I'm not below accusing you of those nightmares you made me walk through." Charlotte spoke up.
"That's right. Once I replaced my name with Death over Umbrage, I gained the power to summon horrendous abominations. I made all of them to test you."
"And why did you test me for? So that I would be a worthy subordinate for you?" Charlotte asked.
"Subordinate? It's hard to have an underling when I am just a horseman for a power much greater than even a Pirate King, but if that was my goal you failed to be worthy. If it wasn't for a certain undead swordsman...you would die. Your instincts are weak, your courage is low, and what worked for your father doesn't work with you."
Umbrage's ear twitch. In a few seconds he would be confronted by the Pacifista he never got rid of, and he himself brought this giant mass of robotics by saying the P word.
It wasn't long before Pete, having briefly split from his group, showed up, to Umbrage's dismay. "You!" he exclaimed with a shocked expression.
"Me what?" Umbrage barked back.
Pete already opened his mouth to fire a laser beam at Umbrage.
This prompted Umbrage to narrowly dodge the beam, much to Pete's shock.
With shadows of tentacles he constricted the big robots movements-wrists and legs. And then, he raised his giant scissors to finish the sentient machine.
Pete felt he was done for, until Charlotte stepped in to help him out.
She grabbed the scissor with her sharp teeth. The scissors came to a halt right when the scissors almost cut through Pete.
"Who are you?" Pete asked.
Charlotte, thought didn't have time as she spat out the scissors, although she did ponder the idea of what to do with them: either use them against Umbrage, or just leave them alone.
Instead, she slipped on her gloves when she dropped his scissors. She was evening up the fight. Cracking her knuckles, she lunged and charged towards Umbrage, clawing into his body.
This action made Langicla mad, and while she was venting she saw a door open up behind Pete. Out of Pete some small creature wormed its way out, like a rat from a hole.
Almost instantly, Pete noticed it, and asked, "Bunnie, what are you doing?"
The creature in question was a small gray looking elf with ears longer than an ogres and two small teeth sticking out, hence the name Bunnie.
"Sorry, Pete, but another slash of those scissors could be fatal for me."
Charlotte was very confused.
"Who's this?" she simply asked.
"Oh, that's my elf familiar, Bunnie." Pete replied.
Herbert was the first to speak after hearing this weird information. "How many people stay close to something small and talkative?"
"He's been living in my mechanisms for a considerable amount of time." Pete replied. "Wait...this thing resides in you?" Etoile asked.
Before Pete could answer that, Vein swooped up to them riding a being unseen by most in all four Blue's: a wyvern. Not just any wyvern, a decayed looking wyvern with sickly silver, rotting scales and glowing red eyes.
"Did you miss me?" he joked.
"Vein? Where are you?" Bunnie asked.
"Seems you stopped being a virgin, Bunnie." Vein commented with shrunken eyes looking at him from aside. "Pete, can you see me?"
"I can, Vein."
"Very good." Vein replied with a smile.
"How'd you get here, anyway?" Pete asked.
"I followed the Pirate King's daughter after I heard a wolf girl challenged the queen of this island."
"I heard that too, but that wasn't too long ago." Bunnie said.
"Bloodfeud travels fast." Vein pat his undead wyvern.
The wyvern let out a comfortable growl as Hardy added, "There's a queen here?"
Vein rolled his eyes and shook his head. Ahead of him, Charlotte was ignorantly fighting her overpowered uncle who was just blocking her flurry of glove fist jabs with one hand and a pair of scissors.
Umbrage then chose to surprise her with an attack of his own. He used a his shadows on the tip of his sword, twirled around and fired the shadowy sphere directly into Charlotte.
She took the hit, hitting the ground almost instantly.
"Shadow Arachnid!"
Umbrage used the shadows in the ground to trap Charlotte in eight shadowy spider legs. Charlotte clenched her teeth, and her grunts would soon get the attention of her fellow nakama.
Umbrage stared at them and they stared at him.
"Hurting me, hitting my shadows with seastone, it won't do you any good." He said.
"So you're obviously immune to seastone?!" Fritz asked.
"Yes. As are the other three given their horses: a companion to follow them around born from a great pirate."
Pete charged up his mouth to fire at Umbrage, but he launched a dark ball into his mouth. Not soon after, the ball exploded inside him.
"And they say I have a loud windpipe." Umbrage murmured.
"How can you allow a serial killers' daughter to be your companion?!" Etoile shouted.
"Hey, daughters of serial killers have feelings too." Langicla groaned. "And who gave you permission to talk about my father that way?"
Etoile just grimaced.
Henry had a plan to hurt Umbrage. He used tape he wrapped around the scabbard over his sword. Then, he swung his blade left and right. With this scabbard now on, he could hit Umbrage without holding back his strength.
Therefore, when he finally struck him, Umbrage felt something hit him on the side, and tried searching for as to where the blow came from.
He turned to see a scrawny looking boy holding his sword that didn't even look like a real sword.
Henry thought to himself, I'm trying to be as brave as I can...but at the end of the day, I'll still be a coward, right?
Umbrage held his scissors the same way Henry held his sword. And after postulating for a tense amount of time, Umbrage swung his scissors!
Henry quickly deflected the attack, and as he grit his teeth, he swung his sword at him again, giving him a few strikes.
