Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece

So for the long wait for this chapter. Now that people are urged to stay home, I'll be posting all the chapters I managed to write today or next week. Thank you CuddlyChristina

X_X_X_X

Umbrage sank into the ground. He vanished. He was going to reappear and strike with his scissors somewhere from the ground. Henry gasped, before looking around.

"Don't worry, Henry," Fritz said, his hands glowing blue with a strange light emitting from his palm. "I'll flush him out by blasting through this whole ground."

"Fritz...WAIT!" Henry yelled.

It was too late for Henry to stop Fritz. He stuck his hand in the ground and an earthquake tore the ground asunder, sinking Umbrage, Henry, Charlotte, and everyone close to them which was everyone present down.

"OH SHHIIIT!" Charlotte yelled as she and the others were brought down by the earthquake.

Hardy acted first morphing into a longer, wider version of himself until he was completely akin to a blanket. Charlotte and Etoile landed on him first.

"What...What just happened?" Etoile was the first to ask. Before long, the other nakama found themselves landing on the 'blanket' Hardy had made himself into.

Not long after they landed on an unknown part of his once human body, the undead wyvern swooped down leaning its back to them. It seemed like it wanted someone to hop on.

Charlotte was quick enough to notice, before getting on top of the creature, as did Etoile and the others. Charlotte, Etoile, and a reluctant Jio got on the wyvern first. Jio had an idea of using his rock moving powers Rollica bestowed on him to raise them up, but his spirit replied...

"Your rocks couldn't cushion a fall and it sure as hell can't lift anyone out of this crevice. Sorry, Jio-woosie, but let the scary undead guy's pet help you."

After they got out, the wyvern carried Henry, Herbert, and a now flesh Hardy. As for Pete and Bunnie, Pete carried him out with one hand holding the small elf and another hand climbing. As for Umbrage and Langicla, they weren't in the crevice.

"Do you think we made it out alright?" Henry asked.

"Of course we have; you don't have to sound so obvious!" Hardy told him.

The wyvern flew from the crew and towards its master, Vein. Vein treated the wyvern like a parrot, petting its head and feeding it for a good show. Instead of crackers though he fed it a purple pulsating lump. Beneath Vein's feet was an unconscious Fritz.

"Your nakama did well, however, for your own safety he must stay with me...for the time being." Vein said.

"Are you sure Fritz will be okay?" Charlotte asked him.

"I don't know." Vein replied.

Everyone waited for a "But" from Vein, except he was just staring at them trying to intimidate them off.

"Jesus, you asked for her so the least you can do is assure us he'll be safe!" Henry shouted.

"I just told you: I. DON'T. KNOW." Vein simply said.

His anger made his wyvern roar. It took Veins gentle hands to calm it down.

"Please just sail away from this island, Wolffang Charlotte."

Charlotte took a deep breath as she closed her eyes while pondering things over.

"Vein, even though your clearly a vampire...I find you to be a good person. It is with a deep heart I leave Fritz in your care, but would you give us ignorant folks a chance to show our appreciation for all he's done by saying goodbye?"

Vein shrugged, before replying with a smile, "Very well, then. I bid you all farewell..."

With an unsheathe quick slash of his sword, Vein disappeared along with Fritz and his wyvern. The six remaining pirates were left completely in bewilderment.

"Now what?" Hardy asked.

X_X_X_X

A few hours of walking with a heavy heart, the crew got back to their ship—and they didn't make the same mistake getting back the Strawhat's did.

"I don't know..." was all that Charlotte replied to Hardy's inquiry.

Charlotte lost her first nakama. It was like how her father lost his nakama only it should hurt her less; it didn't.

X_X_X_X

Meanwhile, Vein had his hair in a ponytail and his hands in a cauldron of boiling water getting ready for a checkup.

"Let's see now..." he said to himself.

Fritz managed to open up his eyes, disoriented and having a worst aftertaste in his mouth than spending all day in his room with a cartoon of cigarettes or a hangover after being told he lost his job as a teacher-over and over again finding a new teaching job until he found the job that finally keeps him. Right now Fritz was focused on Vein, and he had a few questions for the katana wielding vampire.

"Are you going to kill me?"

"No."

"Are you going to fix my powers so I won't be able to use them again?"

"No."

"Are you just helping me because you saw something in Charlotte that made you want to help me?"

"No."

"Then why the hell are you keeping me on this bed?"

"You are losing control of your powers and it's making you hurt people. I won't stand ideally by while my future enemy is killed by her own nakama, accident or not."

"My powers? Are you saying that they're doing more harm than good?" Fritz asked.

"That's right." Vein simply replied.

"So what are you going to do? Bite me so you can absorb them?"

"I'm not that cruel." He replied. "I'll just keep you from reaching supernova with them. Now think of happy thoughts."

Fritz let out a drawn out sigh, before closing his eyes and beginning to envision himself relaxing at a beach.

In a beach there were lots of pretty girls, but when he saw them he saw his former students. He wasn't into younger girls, but his imagination couldn't picture older hotter girls. And then, he saw his spectacular colored cat, the student he was in love with.

Vein saw Charlotte as an ant standing high above her. "Hardest thing I have done in my life was letting my revenge go. I'm so sorry...so sorry..."

X_X_X_X

Charlotte slept for four hours while Henry maned the helm.

At the same time, Hardy asked, "Do you think we've let each other down by losing Fritz?"

"As a man who is sworn to try to uplift the spirits of all God's children, I'm inclined to say no," Jio said, "but as a member of the crew and a healthy male who wants us to get strong and meet a nice girl...I say if we weren't so dense he would still be with us."

"What do you know, Jio?" Etoile barked. "You've only been in this crew for a day, we were with Fritz for weeks and we know why his powers got so dangerous. It's because he lost his sense of taste."

"No sense of taste? But why would he lose something like that?" Jio asked out of confusion.

"It all happened when he got caught in the middle of an explosion." Hardy said.

Hardy and Henry glared at Herbert, tied to the mast.

"I had nothing to do with that." He said. "The voice in my head does."

"No it's not my fault! It's the doofus that has no one to blame but himself." the voice replied.

"So Charlotte is a shipwright and captain, Etoile is the cook, Henry is the ships sniper, Hardy is the item handler, so what does that make you, Herbert?" Jio asked.

"Believe it or not, doctor."

Herbert also added, "And what about you? Since you're obviously new to the team."

"My grandfather was a navigator. I may not know much about maps or how to encompass the sea, but if there's one thing I know it's remembering where my feet have surprisingly not been scorched off." Jio replied.

"Okay, but if your going to be on this crew your going to dress less...in a yutaka." Etoile said.

"Okay, fair game to me. But about the clothes, do you think I'd be wearing a lot more?" Jio asked.

"Why not wear kimonos more often?" Yukino asked. Both she Mikio had been instrumental in the previous adventures, but were able to learn of them thanks to Charlotte.

Jio looked at the new girl giving him advice. "Who are you?"

"I am Yukino, and this is my brother Mikio." Yukino replied, and Mikio showed up next to her. "Hey there!"

"Yukino and Mikio...exotic names for exotic people." Jio said.

Jio looked at Hardy for answers. When he shrugged it off, he looked at Henry. Henry also acted like he didn't know them.

"I thought we were stuck with a crew of five without Fritz and not including Herbert, but now including Herbert there's eight nakama."

"Well, we encountered these two some time ago, and believe it or not, an undersea train was involved." Eloise said.

"Not only were we on the train, we were attacked by hard shelled undead." Henry explained.

"I see..." Jio said, cupping his chin in amusement.

"Come to think of it, Charlotte had told us about this Vein fellow, and even this Pacifista named Pete, too. Though I wonder, if he got out of that mess alive along with that sidekick of his..." Mikio added.

"When?" Hardy asked. "She went to bed the moment we sailed off. Did one of your friends go into her room?"

"Pete's not here." Etoile said. "He's back on the island with Vein."

"Oh, yeah..." Mikio said, scratching the back of his head in slight confusion.

"Yeah. So if there's nothing else, our crew is on a journey with no directions to help achieve a goal...a whatever goal we haven't thought of. Thank you and good luck killing ragging feral humans."

A ship could never keep up with a train, unless it was tipped right side up like a mast for the train, on the side of it, glued to the side. Yes, normally a ship would break from the water torrent, but they found a way to keep it from breaking.

Charlotte was still in that ship, sulking in her bed. She refused to get out of there, so Henry stayed sitting on the mast; one wobbly foot and he would fall into the sea, but as sniper of the ship he had the range to protect his father.

She didn't care about that, as she could only self-deprecate herself of her failures.

Failing Fritz was bad, but she was also no match against an opponent who was only the child her estrange uncle was caring for. It seemed nothing could motivate her to get on with her life. Just when she thought she couldn't she got hungry. She had to get out of bed and eat, and even though meat doesn't make her feel more energetic, she decided to eat it.

"Hey, Charlotte; something wrong?" Hardy asked.

"No. I'm just hungry." she simply told him.

"I can help you find the one meat pantry in about thirteen non-meat pantries."

"Really?" Charlotte asked, before a faint smile arose on her lips. "Thanks, Hardy." she said.

True to his word, Hardy helped her avoid the organic food and vegetables to get that slab of sheep meat she was going to need. Charlotte was more than happy to start eating what she had truly wanted, to Hardy's delight. Henry was just even there. Ever since the island, he imagined himself being Charlotte's bodyguard.

"I think I should start manning up more often." he told Hardy.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I'd like to become a muscle to Charlotte. A bodyguard of sorts." Henry said. This prompted Hardy to nearly flinch in surprise.

"I've been with Charlotte longer than anyone else on this crew and I can say she doesn't need a bodyguard. She hates men who think girls can't take care of themselves."

"Well, I...I think Charlotte's...well, a pretty strong-willed girl. Even if our first encounter was rough to begin." Henry replied.

It was hard for him to fillip his mouth about his captain when she was tossing meat around trying to decide which one to eat.

At the same time, her ears perked up, which prompted Charlotte to stop eating and smile. "Well, it looks like you have grown a pair of balls after all." she told Henry.

Henry took that as a compliment. Charlotte got the meat now she needed to make it roast so it wasn't raw. Henry was more than happy to help out roasting the food alongside Charlotte. Hardy smiled as the two were cooking together.

"I better check up on Etoile, Jio, and Herbert." He said.

He went to go locate the aforementioned three, starting with Herbert. Herbert was in the engine room with a girl wearing a sleeveless shirt. Just from her backside, Hardy could tell she was working hard and had a hard body.

"Doing okay?" Herbert heard Hardy call out. He looked over his shoulder and replied, "Yeah, I'm fine. I almost didn't hear you due to the noise in here."

"Excuse me, but who are you?" the woman asked.

"I'm the assassin with two minds and fast reflexes. My name is Herbert." He replied.

"Well, I'm Doris. I just work here." Doris replied.

"I see that; I was just checking up on you guys." Hardy replied, to which Herbert nodded in agreement.

"Between you and me, I don't mess with girls. Even my voices don't want me to fight them."

"You fought three girls the day we met!" Hardy exclaimed.

"Allegedly." Herbert replied. "It's either me or the voices."

"Hey, he took it upon himself to do it, not me!" the voice exclaimed, causing Herbert to lightly smack his head in annoyance.

Hardy left Herbert alone with Doris. She seemed capable of knocking him out herself. He walked out of the room and roamed the hall until he saw Jio, clapping his hands together while standing near a closed door.

"Hey Jio. Whatcha doing?" Hardy asked.

"Giving a blessing."

"Giving a what?"

Jio's attention seemed to be on the door, so Hardy opened the door to see what was inside. He saw feet; two sets rubbing together with a bed sheet over them. He walked into two people making love on a bed.

"Oh shit!" Hardy exclaimed, prompting the couple to nearly notice him until he fled.

He ran right past Etoile, who was doing pushups in a room with the lights off.

He suddenly stopped in his tracks once he'd narrowly recognize her, and asked, "Oh, hey. How's it going, Etoile?"

"Oh, nothing. I'm just working out, possibly to impress that hunk from the racing competition." Etoile replied with a dreamy smile.

Hardy saw everyone and finally got an idea on how to stay clear of them.

And when he returned to his captain, she was talking to this trains captain. Henry was just standing beside her.

"Hey, I don't mean to interrupt, but can I join in on the conversation?" he asked.

Henry morphed into a cute kangaroo baby just to get a yes from his captain.

"Whoa! How are you able to transform into that?" Hardy asked, as he and Charlotte were noticeably surprised.

He blinked his eyes. His eyes bulged with a round blob of pink bubblegum. "Still my powers, but my own skin or my fragments of color can change like a chameleon with my powers. Can I join you?"

After that bizarre choice of displaying his powers to everyone, he sat down in his human form spouting suggestions.

"Did you know after Razi became Pirate King, that a rebellion of demi-humans started growing in the direction we are heading to now?" He asked.

"You mean Minks?" Mikio said. "What about them?"

"Well I'm not much of a fighter, but since you know how well I am at disguising...maybe I can distract them in a Mink form, mingle if I can, while your train goes around their barrier."

"How do you expect to get to the island?" Charlotte asked. "Devil Fruit users can't swim and we can't get close without this supposed distraction."

"Minks have problems with trash in the sea just like every living being since we rely on water to survive. Trash can by trash piece, you rip a part of my malleable body away so I can stick to it as gum, and morph my body back when every can is brought to the island." Hardy said.

"That sounds like a dumb plan that will surely make you lose pieces of your body you are going to miss, not to mention damage the ocean." Jio said, walking back after giving out a "blessing".

Hardy shuddered at the thought of permanently losing a limb.

Yukino raised her hand getting the three boys and only one other girls attention.

"Charlotte, your a werewolf, right? Why don't we pass you off as a Mink? You could be a wolf Mink. All you need is Hardy to take off some of his bubblegum body and use it to cover all your body with artificial fur."

"Problem with that is skin suffocation." Charlotte replied. "If I cover my body completely in gum, I might die."

"Not if, and hear me out, we keep your back shaved. You can say you lost it from a hunter trap." Mikino suggested.

Charlotte was surprised by Yukino's suggestion, but felt like it would certainly work...maybe.

"Just one question, for Hardy." Mikio said. "How did you know about the Mink island?"

Hardy smiled but it faded into a reminiscent stare. "Because the oppressed speak to the oppressed."

Flashback:

Hardy was only eight and yet this was the fourth time a man pointed a gun at him and Levi's face, all because the guardian needed work and he wouldn't hire...all because Levi couldn't be seen in a store no matter how fancy he dressed.