Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece
Thank you CuddlyChristina for helping me write this chapter. I am glad to finally get a chapter posted on a weekend.
X_X_X_X
This place was a lot more orange and red than the usual train she was in. Etoile could only wonder what they would do to a Mink infant, her eyes widening a bit in fear and curiosity.
She slowly crept through the hall trying not to be noticed or make a sound. Her creeping lead her to a room with a cage and a severed furry arm clinging from the inside, like it was trying to endure some kind of pain.
Although that room seemed creepy, there was nothing she could do about it so she continued moving. At last, she walked into a room with a baby Mink and a needle help by the big tooth scientist.
To her horror, it was dead, and it didn't take long for him to inject the little creature with what happened to be some sort of serum. Etoile knew now what kind of lab show these two were pulling. She was going to report back to Charlotte. Then, the ears of that baby Mink propped out.
It looked like as though it was revived, at least to her. But it wasn't the same baby. This was a wolf Mink, the one that was dead was a rabbit Mink. Etoile didn't know why looking at a wolf Mink was causing her to clench her fist, but she wanted to fight these two.
X_X_X_X
Meanwhile...
Charlotte went to Herbert to ask him to spy on the Mink base inside.
"So you needed me to get in there and see what's going on?" he asked.
"Correct." she replied with a nod.
"Sure, I can do that. Although these Mink's might have nocturnal animal qualities, they can never outmatch my implants. How should I contact you when your out here with two Mink's watching your back?"
Herbert turned around and ran in the direction of the base. The nearest tree he found, he climbed it up until he reached the branch and jumped into the base.
Once inside, he was confident he could get things done. But what he didn't know, was that Etoile was also somewhere in the base.
Inside, he saw words written in paint on the wall. Some were dry paint with wet paint stricken over the dry paint and just wet paint.
"A goodie wears a pelt; not skin or carry a pelt." That line was dry but covered wet.
' Is this supposed to be cryptic or something?' Herbert thought to himself.
A deer and a panda are walking this way, hide behind that cauldron." Herbert was told by the voice in his head.
His chip had a three hundred and sixty degree span of the area. What it told Herbert was the truth.
He was able to take its advice to heart, and began locating the cauldron in to hide behind.
All it took was a simple bit of camouflage and they just passed by not seeing him. It was a relief that he wasn't spotted, but he heard a vexing laugh coming from a closeby house.
"I think there's something that makes me wonder where it's coming from." Herbert said.
"Are you sure? Because I doubt there's anyone else besides you...and to a lesser extent, me." the voice replied.
Herbert followed that once small sound to a loud laugh belonging to a parsimonious person. Herbert found a house bigger than everyone's small huts and peeked inside. Inside, he saw the fattest lion Mink sitting on a chair, a salamander Mink heating a log that was under his pampered paws.
"You think we should greet them?" the voice asked.
"Are you kidding? Why would I do that for?" Herbert told him with an annoyed expression.
Herbert just watched to see why a lion was enjoying himself in the middle of the night...and why he was so fat. As he watched, he saw the show the lion was watching. Three Mink's in sparkly bikini's and red underwear were dancing like flamingo's in front of him.
"Oh, just some random erotic TV show." Herbert said. This caused the lion mink to almost hear him and take notice.
But the girls there weren't on a TV, they were blushing in the face and cowering their chests when the lion wasn't looking. They were there and dancing against their wills...until he swished his left paw and they hurriedly left the room.
"How did you get here?" he asked with a fairly stern expression.
Herbert gulped. He thought his position was found. He had to go, only turns out he didn't have to. The one he was talking to was another lion.
"I was given directions by a wise owl Mink."
"Really? And how?" the salamander Mink asked.
He glared at the salamander before answering.
"Someone told the owl to tell me. They wanted me to visit this paradise."
The fatter lion licked his lips, those words being music to his ears. He finally got off his chair and walked to a drawer. He pulled open the drawer—the salamander annoyed while the other lion silent—the lion pulled out a medal.
"For you." He told the lion.
Herbert raised an eyebrow. "Huh? What's this?" he asked as he took the medal from his hands.
"It's a medal the leader gives to lion Mink's." The salamander explained.
"Untrue," the lion said. "I give it to all Mink's when they deserve it. He's traveled a long way to get here."
"I basically crossed the Grand Line and the Red Line to get here, lived here for two years, and I was never handed a medal."
He scowled at the salamander for making a point, "Go fetch me another log for you to burn,"
Herbert kept his eyes on the salamander being slaved around. While his attention was diverted, a Mink screamed.
"There's an intruder!" he yelled, which prompted the guards to quickly notice and hear him.
"Uh oh, busted. So now what? You wanna deal with them face to face?" the A.I. asked Herbert.
"I do not consent to that!" Herbert yelled. "We are getting out of this place!"
"But Herbert-" the A.I. attempted to reason, but alas, to no avail.
And with that, Herbert took off running, attempting to evade the guards. Unfortunately for him, it seemed he wasn't able to outrun the quick Minks.
He leaped over the gate. Hopefully he was rid of them now.
With a thunderous heaving sound, the gate was opened and Minks bolted out.
"Oh shit..." he muttered to himself in exasperation and slight fear.
A mad raccoon-dog Mink was the first to charge towards Herbert. He was so close he could kick Herbert, but he stopped when a bullet made the sand on his feet explode. Herbert knew what could do that...a sniper rifle.
His eyes began scavenging the area, wondering just who shot the bullet in question.
He found him: Henry.
"Henry...?" Herbert asked in surprise.
"Shhh! Come find me, quickly!" Henry whispered in a fairly alert voice. This allowed Herbert to get up, and eventually look for him.
The Mink's retreated back to their hideout...
All except one and his nose could track Herbert with just a whiff of his nose.
X_X_X_X
Etoile wasn't going to fight, unless she had to.
Suddenly, she heard the sounds of the chase with Herbert, prompting her to take a brief listen.
She was so fixated on the sounds outside, she didn't notice the white haired man staring at her inside. He stared, he did nothing, and then he walked back to his master.
She breathed a sigh of relief, before pressing on.
She learned Herbert was indebted to Henry. It was cliche that two boys with similar names would be on their way to becoming friends.
In the room she was in, they were storing the wolf Mink.
She walked stealthily through the familiar copper wall hall with the eerie red lights until she reached the containment vessel holding the Mink.
"You want to get something to eat after this?" one of the workers asked.
"Maybe." another replied.
By then, they didn't notice Etoile sneaking in and grabbing the small Mink. She finally opened the container and tried sneaking through the air duct with the baby Mink nestled in her arm with its blanket wrapped tight. For some reason, holding this Mink was making her nose act a little stuffy.
She was only three steps away from the door, and yet she couldn't leave-had to stay and hide-because the toothy guy from before was coming.
As he stepped inside, she could also even hear his voice from below.
She knew he was coming, so she scuttled up on the pipes and crouched down, baby cradled in her arms.
Like she thought, he walked in with his bodyguard.
He was calm, naive about his baby that was taken.
"Where is the little critter we were supposed to be examining?" he asked.
"I don't know. Last time I saw him he was sleeping peacefully." the other one replied.
The smiley one stroked his chin while contemplating what do do. In the end, he just grabbed a box with a handle.
"Let's go back to that village and see if we can get some of that fruit he's harboring."
He ran out of the room in a flash, unlike his bodyguard. He sauntered to the door, but stopped on his way out.
"I know your watching us. Know that the only reason you're not a prisoner or dead is Marine business means nothing to me. All I want is one thing: a certain fishman."
'A certain fishman? ' Etoile thought, assuming that the fishman in question was Momo.
The bodyguard left. Despite what he said, Etoile was hesitant to leave the room. After all, when a big burly man says he doesn't want to fight...it just shows he wants to fight like a coward.
X_X_X_X
Kelsey woke up expecting to see two nobody Mink's sleeping like babies. Instead, she awoke to see two hard working nobodies.
She called out, "Hey! Wake up and get your asses back to work!"
The only one who was awoken by this was her rhino worker bee because Charlotte was pushing pulling trolley's and Hardy was cutting down trees.
Randy blinked his eyes in confusion, before asking, "Huh? What's going on?"
"I said 'wake up', you clod!" Kelsey yelled, smacking him upside the head.
Randy was thick skin, but Kelsey hit him harder than his mother did, and she was a six-two muscle Mink.
His brain finally found the stimulus to see the two nobodies working before him.
"What? What's going on?" he asked, before noticing Charlotte and Hardy. "Oh, yeah...those two clowns, what are we supposed with them again?"
A"Get them to do hard work so we don't have to do so much back breaking work and the minutiae is left to the lions, the ones who think over work." Kelsey explained.
"Ugh...alright, fine. I'm on it." Randy replied, rubbing the back of his head.
He tried keeping up with Charlotte. The sleep deprived werewolf was pulling better than him.
"What's wrong with you, big guy? You've gotta work harder than that!" she told Randy.
Randy worked until his gray skin turned red and his eyes were trickling tears of exhaustion.
"Please, let me have a break!" he called out to Kelsey out of being burned out.
Kelsey had percolated brown liquid too bitter to be coffee. She gave one cup to Randy.
Randy quickly took a glug out of it, but nearly had the urge to puke due to it not being actual coffee. As he barfed it out, Charlotte and Hardy looked on with indifferent reactions.
"Is he going to be okay?" Hardy asked.
"Mind your own business and get back to-"
Kelsey was interrupted by the village gate opening, something that hardly happens since everyone inside the village never want to leave. She thought the option was they were letting people in-her, Randy, and maybe the nobodies.
"What's going on?" Randy asked Kelsey out of confusion.
Out walked a hedgehog Mink, taller than Hardy yet more rotund than him. He approached Kelsey.
"The boss wants you inside," he said.
"I'll be...we'll be there." She said.
The hedgehog Mink then turned to notice Charlotte and Hardy present in the forest. He asked Kelsey, "What are these humans doing here, by the way?"
"What are you talking about?" She asked. She looked at the werewolf and the toad. She didn't see any humans.
"Really? Dumb fox, look at their feet. The shape of the toad's feet are five toes not webbed feet? Who taught you about feet, a ghost?"
"Well, shit." Charlotte said under her breath.
Kelsey wasted no time showing her sharp teeth and preparing her claws to rip three claw marks into Charlotte; even one would make her happy.
Charlotte quickly morphed into her werewolf form, upping the ante for her battle with Kelsey.
Her left claw passed through Kelseya left swing and scratched her nose.
Kelsey grimaced as she briefly clutching her slightly bleeding nose, before fighting back by trying to scratch through her once more.
While those girls were mimicking wild animals scratching each other, Hardy was against Joey charging at him with his head down, flashing his horn.
Hardy didn't even bother dodging, he just let the horn impale his right side. While that horn was digging deep inside him, pink gum was sticking to the rhino's horn.
Randy didn't know that the gum was making it hard for him to pull out. Hardy raised his hands in the air and slammed his now enlarge fists into Randy's back.
Randy found himself crashing to the ground, his mouth agape by the boy's sudden strength. "Are you really that strong?!" he asked.
Hardy battered the rhino Mink up...just like he did to those bounty hunters.
Flashback-Continued
The towns people, the cats and dogs, and especially Levi were in shot. A pillow of smoke steamed out of the nuzzle in the bounty hunter's gun, before he raised it to his nose and whiffed up the heat.
It was clear the bounty hunters had no remorse or regret killing a young boy, but instead of his vertebrae bone and blood...they found only gum peeled away.
"W-What?" The bounty hunter gasped.
And soon, the gum merged together until all that was standing was a face; Hardy's angry face.
"You try and take me down, and I'll knock back up again!" he retorted to them.
X_X_X_X
Kelsey didn't know Randy was having his brain massaged up the nostrils by a being that can turn into bubblegum, but she at least was getting an upper hand against Charlotte.
She continued to punch at her, often relying on her claws to try and take Charlotte out.
"No way I'm losing to a human!" She exclaimed.
"I may be human," Charlotte smirked, pushing her elbow into Kelsey's. "But I have fangs."
In Charlotte's wolf hybrid form, she twirled her arms around before snarling at Kelsey. Kelsey moved her hands to stop what she believed to be her opponent biting her. Before she knew it, the end of a foot with a glove fitted on kicked her in the chin.
As she hit the ground, Charlotte was quick enough to figure out what it was.
Before Charlotte knew it, she was looking at two tails instead of one. One was made out of strong metal, the kind you'd use to make an android out of.
However, due to her having sustained injuries from Kelsey, she wound up passing out.
"Good. Now that fresh claw-nobody is done, I just have to get inside to tell that gout toed, overweight lion we might have-"
Hardy in his octopus gum form reached out to grab Kelsey.
Kelsey flinched as the gum-like creature took her by one of her legs.
Even in a panicked state, a human wouldn't be able to just gnaw their own leg off; desperate and filled with feral instincts Kelsey could chew off her leg just to pry out, swish her one real tail, and then claw at the boys eyes...if he had any.
Instead, she was thrown over the forest, yelping when she flew over the unconscious, beaten Randy.
Hardy looked like a big pancake that was stretched out and given six legs in his current form. Gradually, he shrunk and molded until he looked like the young dark skin boy he was.
Then he reached for his hat, and pulled out a vial or special medicine usually given to dogs...of which Charlotte was still half of their ancestors.
He ran to his captain with great haste. Like a vet trying to give a dog medicine, he held Charlotte's snout and pried it open. Once her shark teeth were bare, blood visible in her gums, he shoved a pill from the vial in her mouth...
That was the easy part...
Charlotte tried to spit it out in her stat if Hardy didn't clamp on her snout.
"Easy, easy captain. You'll feel better taking it in than you do swallowing it down." Hardy assured her.
Charlotte furiously scratched her hind-legs into the dirt and volatility, shaking her mouth and trying to pry her teeth open. Hardy was trying his best to subdue her, until a voice rang out.
"Excuse me, but do you need some help?"
Hardy turned to face him, and saw that it was a fox Mink.
This fox was different, mainly because it was a male fox Mink and didn't seem to be hostile towards humans like Kelsey was.
"Yes, please." Hardy said, keeping his eyes on the Mink but giving him a chance to help.
"I'd be more than happy to take you to my home, since you're both appearing to be very worn out." he replied.
Hardy nodded, and with Charlotte alongside him, they both followed the fox Mink to where he lived.
Unfortunately, his home was just a burrow, a hole in a hill remodeled to look like a home with a kitchen, chair, and bed. To make things even more complicated, Kelsey was curled up on the floor of his home.
"Are you alright?" The fox Mink asked the vixen.
She was half awake with her head raised up. "No, I was injured by our oldest foe: humans. Is this your home?"
"Yes, but you can lie down and sleep if your tired."
"Kelsey?!" Hardy asked. "How did she get here?"
Kelsey looked tired and beaten, she was even splotched with blood on her right shoulder.
The fox Mink replied, "Introductions, first. I'm Samuel."
"My name's Hardy, and this is Charlotte." Hardy said. "But...how did Kelsey get here?"
Samuel blinked, looked at Kelsey, then looked at Hardy and Charlotte longer.
"This may be a shot in the dark because I'm just a forest Mink not a town Mink, but looks to me your friend has the ability to move herself around places without using her feet. Sorta like her tail dragged her here."
"Seriously?! That's...actually pretty cool!" Hardy replied with a grin.
Samuel didn't move from his spot, he kept his eyes on Kelsey. It seemed like he was spacing out, captivated by the bloody form of her.
"Well, she may need some taking care of as much as your friend. So I'll need to check up on them and see if they're alright." he told Hardy. "Especially Kelsey." he added.
"Thank you, sir. I didn't want to hurt these two, but they attacked us first." Charlotte said. "Now excuse me while I go find a hedgehog."
Charlotte turned around and walked away.
"A hedgehog? What she'd mean by that?" Hardy asked, scratching his head out of confusion. However, when he overheard Kelsey's conversation that briefly mentioned the hedgehog Mink, he grimaced.
"I can't believe I missed how different their toes were from actual Mink toes, and some dumb hedgehog had to point it out to me."
Speaking of him, he was slowly trudging to the village-the slow Mink he was to begin with-when he spotted Charlotte racing towards him in a form he didn't anticipate: her pure wolf form. In an act of fear, he curled up into a giant spiky ball.
Charlotte, in her thoughts, taunted, "Come out, come out wherever you are, spiky!"
She couldn't get him out of his curl, but there was someone who could and fortunately for her, not to mention how much of a time saver it was, he was already sloshing his way over in a wet mound of moving gunk.
His gunky form encased the ball before squeezing tightly on him.
The hedgehog Mink growled and asked, "What the hell? Who's out there?!"
"Wolffang Charlotte." She said, leaning down and belittling him with her smile he couldn't see.
"Did you say...Wolffang? I don't know if I should be happy or scared your here, but maybe I can use you...what do you want?"
"To get inside the village and talk to your leader."
He uncurled his ball and emerged in a hunch over posture. His smile was big and his fingers were shaking.
"That can be arranged."
"Why is that?" she asked.
"Because I am the leader." he replied.
He said that, but when he let them inside...there were large flags etched with black and white sewn dots resembling a lion in the village.
"My name is Aloysius." he added.
Charlotte knew a word to describe the banners and the rules written on the wall: propaganda. Suddenly, she was immediately noticed by the Mink villagers.
"It's the wolf that tried to kill one of our kind!" one villager called out.
The Mink ran like barbarian's ready to tear Charlotte limb from limb with their vast numbers, but she was saved by the gelatinous form of Hardy all oozing with pink bubblegum and whistling in an eerie way that gave him the appearance of a flesh eating monster.
"Oh shit! Run for your lives!" another Mink villager screamed in terror as he stepped back.
Charlotte sauntered through the village with Hardy close behind still bulbous and scary. According to the intel she got from Hardy, the mayor's house was close by.
She reached the door, before kicking it in, and startling the people inside. The mayor also noticed and asked, "Who goes there, intruder?!"
"My name is Charlotte. I wanted to have a peaceful negotiation, maybe some food and dinner as one of you, but your people attacked me so I'm going to get some decent treatment by being who I am."
"Pfffftt!" The lion mayor retorted. "The only thing your getting is my paw in your bitch face."
"Oh, just try me." Charlotte said with a smirk.
The lion mayor got out of his desk, and approached her with a glare.
He tried intimidating her moving his paws in a flurry of punches. He kept moving fast and reckless all the way from where he was to her...and she simply grabbed his left paw; his flurry was over and he was trembling in utter panic.
"D-Don't hurt me!" He cried. Charlotte moved his own paw to smack his own chubby face with it. When she stopped, he cried out in panic. "You can't do this! I'm the mayor...the king of this island!" He wailed.
"You were the king." Charlotte stated. "Now your just a cream and sugar replica of the beast you used to be." She smacked him again with his own paw. "That's probably why your hitting yourself."
"That's a lie!" he exclaimed.
"You're the one who's clearly lying!" she told him.
She pressed her fingers down on his pudgy meat bones that were once strong talon cocoons. Then she dragged him out of his luxury suit to be in the scorching heat where all his kin were.