Again, I am soooo sorry for the mix up of the last two chapters. Here is what was supposed to be going on in the chapter…sooo sorry!

To top it all off, we're remodeling my bedroom so everything in the house is a little crazy here at my house…lol gonna have a lot of work to do with a two week timeline of getting things done.

So, challenge for you lovelies….I left a hidden reference to another One Piece Fanfiction (Hidden Consequences) in here because I seriously love their work and felt it fit story wise…if you spot it, I'll send ya a preview for a future chapter only clue? It's hidden in the section of when we see Bellamy again…

The atmosphere inside was that of a feast style party.

Everyone was having a great time, Luffy was able to eat without getting yelled at for how much he was eating, and Zoro and I sat in the back where it was relatively quiet yet not separate from the party zone. Zoro was chugging away at whatever it was he was drinking, but I didn't try figuring out what that was as I'd learned my lesson back at Whiskey Peak.

I was just surprised I'd managed to find some alcohol I DID liked back at the bar in Mock Town. There weren't many types that I actually enjoyed enough to drink in front of others like that of the full bar had been.

Instead, I was nursing my own glass. I'd told Sanji of my preferences a while back, and so now the Liquor cabinet is always stocked with some of my favorites, like Honey Mead, Fire Whiskey (although, we have to keep Zoro's grubby alcoholic hands off them…) and some of the more fruity cocktail mixes.

He always leaves those alone.

Go figure.

Chopper and Sanji had gotten their heads together a couple days back and started trying to make their own liquor, but so far no one besides Zoro and Nami were able to drink it without instantly getting drunk. Those, combined with the various wines that Sanji liked to collect, made a great stock of liquor.

Cricket laughed heartily, and Mashira joyously shouted, "Eat! Eat! There's a lot more! It's a special summer cuisine! Hahaha!

When Mashira tried to copy Luffy's attempts at stealing food, Usopp was quick to lace some of his with some special hot sauce, laughing out at Mashira, "I got you! 'Hot sauce bomber jet'!"

Mashira's face almost seemed to be smoking from his mouth due to the heat, and his entire face, neck and ears went boiling red before launching himself after Usopp (who'd gotten up to run for his life) shouting, "Grrrr! Long Nose!"

Shoujou, Chopper and Luffy just laughed at the whole thing.

Cricket tried to get Nami to sit and drink with him, to which Sanji took exception to, kicking the drunk man back by the head as he said, "you want Miss Nami to sit with you? You're 100 years too early!"

It was at that point that Shoujou, drink in hand, came up to Zoro and complimented him, "you're a good drinker!"

Zoro smirked and said, "I can still drink more!"

I got up and went over to Robin at the window, she was drinking from the same glass of wine that she'd first gotten at the start of the meal and was studying Norland's Logbook.

She smiled at me as I sat down with her and asked if there was anything more about Sky Island. She shook her head no but said that there was plenty about the City of Gold.

Reaching the last page, we both flinched when Cricket got up into our faces, saying, "in the skull's right eye, gold is seen."

Nami's attention snapped into laser focus, muttering, "gold!?"

Cricket backed away from us and took a swig of his water to help him come back from his drunkenness, "the page that has tear drops on it is Noland's last words. His sentence was carried out that day. I still don't understand what that passage means. The skull's right eye!? Is that a city that was here before? Or is it hinting at his death? It's all blank after that."

Mashira, Shoujou and Cricket all began to shout, "that's why we need to go underwater! Daydream on the bottom of the sea!"

"yup, wooooh!"

"Yo~Haaa~!"

Luffy and Usopp started joining in, "we're going to fly! Fly into the sky! OOOOH!" turning it into a song of sorts.

It was during the 'song' that we all heard a knock on the door.

Everyone paused in what they were doing, but us StrawHats all smiled as we saw it was only Will and Neal.

Will smiled sheepishly, and said, "hey guys, sorry we're back so late. I found an awesome subject to paint, and the day just got away from me...hehehe...is there still enough for us?"

Sanji pulled out a heaping plate that he'd hidden from Luffy and Mashira's stomachs, along with a bowl of assorted fruit, nuts, seeds and even a few pieces of the thinner cut meats out of our meal for Neal.

Unlike normal parrots, Neal was able to eat meat due to his devil fruit. He had to shift to his Hybrid Form to do so, but it made him feel more included with our crew, being able to eat portions of the meal that we were all eating too.

Chopper was similar, in that he predominantly ate veggies, but since he was in his 'hybrid' form all the time, he never had to consciously think about what he was eating.

Cricket was all smiles when he learned that Will and Neal were a part of the crew, and Shoujou and Mashira found it awesome that Will and I were siblings as well.

Will took his and Neal's food and sat down between Zoro and I as there wasn't much space to sit left anymore. Cricket's house may be the perfectly large size for a single man, but it was starting to feel a little over cramped with all of us inside it.

Will was being caught up to speed with Cricket, Luffy and Nami. Well, mostly with Nami, as Cricket was too drunk to really keep on track, but he was slowly getting more and more sober as he spoke to Will. Luffy was just a rubbery ball of excitement and Neal just sat there eating his food. He didn't speak, as he was unsure of the foreign three people we were dinning with tonight.

Once Neal and Will had been caught up to speed, Cricket started talking about the logbook again. He was quoting it verbatim, showing how he'd read it so many times that he had it memorized by this point.

"The diary entry on 5,21,1122, Jaya."

In the background, Shoujou and Mashira were chanting Norland's name. What amazed me, was how Cricket could recite all of this while still being totally trashed. His face was still flushed from the alcohol and everyone else was either finishing up their meal, or still eating (Luffy) and drinking (Zoro).

"When we reached that Island, we heard a unique chirping sound from a mysterious bird in the forest, and very, very loud ringing sound of bells. The sound from those gigantic, beautiful bells made of gold, can be heard from all corners of the sea, like a message delivering the cities glory in the old days. The change in civilizations throughout the ages in the endless oceans...is for us, who have lived but a few dozen years a grand matter that leaves us speechless! For a while after that, we would always feel uneasy when we heard bells!"

At the end, Cricket raised his voice and arms skywards as he shouted out the final lines, making the two monkey brothers cheer out Norland's name again. Luffy, Chopper and Usopp joining them as Nami focused in on the fact that he said 'gigantic and beautiful GOLDEN bells' in that speech.

Somehow, that doesn't surprise me…

Cricket pulled out a large solid gold ingot shaped like a golden bell that was a "token". Cricket had found three of them so far at the bottom of the sea. "Damn, if we didn't have to leave so soon, I could totally help them search in places they usually can't dive down to, what with being able to breathe underwater...bummer…" I thought as I stared down at the token.

Nami's eyes changed, and I knew I would be screwed the next time we found some kind of ruins that were either completely submerged, or partially. Shit. Did I say that out loud? Fuck me…. she's never going to leave me alone about it is she?

Usopp made the point of reference that although large, how could Norland have considered this one ingot to have been gigantic? Nami was now smooshing her face back and forth on the gold as she cradled it like it was a long-lost lover.

Cricket corrected Usopp, saying that this wasn't the bell that was written of in Norland's logbook, and its proper name, the token, which is how we learned its name.

Luffy looked upwards to Shoujou, even sitting down the monkey brothers were well over head and shoulders taller than us all, and asked him, "so the golden city did exist after all, right?"

Shoujou waved his hands as he said, "not necessarily! Small amounts of gold like this is common in ruins."

Chopper asked aloud, "what is a 'token'?"

Robin, as the resident archeologist, answered in a smooth teaching voice, "regardless, this proves that there was an ancient 'civilization' that existed in this area. Tokens were made to organize gold pieces into milligram units. Which means that they were used for trade! Like coins are today."

Cricket smiled and said, "that's right. Also, the mysterious birds that make strange sounds…" he turned to look at Mashira and called his name.

Mashira pulled out another slightly larger statue that was covered in cloth, saying, "okay…" as he did so.

Luffy and Usopp were shocked that there was more and Nami's eyes had money simples floating in them again. Zoro swallowed the drink in his mouth to comment on how this statue was bigger than the last as Mashira pulled away the cloth covering the statue.

It was a statue of an odd-looking bird.

It sort of resembled a toucan in the shape of its beak, but the head crests reminded me of another bird that I'd seen in the forests of my birth island in East Blue. The name escaped me at the time, all I could remember was that it had something to do with horn? Hornbills?

Cricket explained that this was the last of the stuff he'd found so far, and I was shocked that this was all he'd been able to find in the last ten years...You'd think there'd be more if the city really did sink to the bottom of the sea...right?

As the others admired it, with Sanji asking if this "bird holding a golden bell" was the symbol of Jaya, I noticed Will and Neal didn't seem that surprised. Leaning over, I asked in as loud a whisper as I could, "Will? Have the two of you seen one of these birds when you went off exploring the forest?"

My question ground everyone to a halt, and Will rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, admitting, "yeah, Neal and I found one of these guys around noon, and he let me paint a contrasting portrait of him and Neal."

I smiled and Cricket asked, "how'd you ever get one of those devils to cooperate with you? South Birds are notorious in these parts for their dislike of humans. Not even the locals will see them more than once or twice in their lives."

Will smiled and said, "well, Neal here ate a devil fruit that allows him to talk," he pointed to Neal, who was once again sitting on Will's shoulder due to the lack of space, "He told the south bird that I wasn't here to damage the forest, just paint a picture. Once they understood that, they left me to myself. Didn't stop one of them from following us around for a couple hours, and once I figured out that they were south birds, a painting came to mind. So, I asked, Neal translated, and yeah...did...you guys wanna see it?"

Luffy had stars in his eyes, and Chopper was clapping his hooves in excitement.

So Will stood up, and Neal fluttered up to sit on a rafter above us, and I watched Cricket and the Monkey Brother's reactions to Will opening his Storage Box. Their jaws dropped and the brothers had stars in their eyes but other than that, they didn't react.

Will pulled out a large canvas, easily as long as his torso and turned it around so that we could all see the final painting.

It was Neal on the left, and a bird that had the same shape as the one depicted in the golden statue. What was nice about this though, was that the painting gave a clear view of the south bird's unique coloration. It had deep purples with flashes of lime green feathers and a striking yellow beak and head crests. The way the beak was held, you'd swear it was giving you a sinister, cocky and mischievous smirk. How Will pulled that off, I had no idea, but it was in great detail for the feathers.

Luffy shouted out in amazement, along with Chopper, Usopp and our hosts. Cricket admired it himself, complementing, "that's some talent you've got boy. Nicely done."

Will blushed at the praise, asking if Cricket wanted one, since he always makes two paintings. I doubted that, since I knew Will actually had a photographic memory and was likely planning on just giving this one to Cricket and repainting it for himself later.

Luffy asked both Cricket and Will if the bird sounded weird like in the diary, which both said, "yes/yeah."

Mashira leaned in and said, "speaking of south birds, did you know that ever since long ago, sailors…!"

Their words seemed to spark a memory as Cricket and the Monkey Brothers all screamed out in horror, "Damn it!"

Luffy's reaction was to ask what was wrong, while I'd slipped my hand down to my sword hilt.

Cricket said to Luffy, almost all traces of his drunken blush gone from his shock, "this is bad! You should go to the forest quickly to the south of here and catch one of these birds right away!"

Luffy asked, "huh? What are you saying? Are you stupid?"

"I don't think Luffy realizes that Cricket doesn't know about Neal being a North Bird…? Kinda mean to call someone Stupid, if they are simply ignorant…" I thought to myself.

Will had just put the painting up against the only blank spot on Cricket's wall when everyone had started shouting. Once that was done, he came back over to me and sat down as Cricket explained the nature of the South Bird and how due to the knock up stream being directly south of here, we'd need one of these birds to get us directly south on the grand line, a place where normal compasses don't work and make sailors lose all sense of direction out on the open water.

Nami seemed to have an epiphany, as she said aloud, "oh...that's right. Since our destination is not an island, but part of the sea, the log pose will not work! Then what do we do to ensure our direction? Neal?" she turned to Neal and Will with a crooked smile, "could you stay in parrot form when we search for the Knock Up Stream?"

Neal shook his head, and said, "I am a North Bird, not a South Bird. Even with knowing which way true North is, what we need is true South. In the Grand Line, things can easily change. Even with me pointing true North, it doesn't necessarily mean that true South will always be directly behind whichever way I face. It would be far easier to just go ask one of my fellow avian cousins if one of them would be willing to help us out than to get lost at sea."

Oh...so then my idea wouldn't have worked anyways. My bad. Guess we'll just have to go find one of these South Birds then.

Cricket huffed, "that's why you need the SOUTH Bird! It's said that some animals contain a bio-compass that enhances their directional sense, these birds take it to the extreme, as I'm sure your aware, what with having a North Billed Parrot amongst you."

Nami sighed as she nodded, saying, "before Neal, the only example I had was about pigeons having this ability."

Luffy turned to Zoro, laughing as he mocked him, "So, Zoro, You're worse than animals! Shihihihihihi!"

Zoro's eyes bugged out as he snarled at Luffy, "and who are YOU to judge!?"

I chuckled, and Zoro pouted, leaning back into his seat with his arms crossed petulantly.

Cricket just ignored our antics, as he said, "among those animals, south and north birds have the best sense of direction. No matter how far away you move the bird, it'll always point to the right direction."

He rounded on Usopp, Chopper and Luffy, who seemed to be taking this situation way too lightly, and yelled, "in other words, you can't do anything without a bird like that! You won't be able to even try getting to Sky Island!"

This caused the trio to scream as it finally compounded into their brains and they comprehended what the conversation had been about this entire time.

Luffy started clutching his hat to his head and said loudly, "how come you're only mentioning this just now!?"

Usopp glanced out to the forest and whimpered, "it's way past midnight! Yet we have to go to the forest?"

Cricket must have been getting tired of listening to the whining, for he had no mercy as he called after them, "quit complaining. There's no time! The three of us," he gestured to himself and the monkey brothers, "will enhance your crappy ship now. Come to think of it, this wasn't really the time for a party!"

Zoro grumbled as he stood up, "should have said that earlier!"

The rest of my crew went off into the forest, while I decided to stay behind and guard the ship. I knew that Cricket and the monkey brothers were trustworthy, but I didn't want to go into the forest this late at night.

Will was with them, and so was Robin, who's devil fruits would probably be best for catching and restraining the bird if they decided to be little shits about coming. Cricket made sure to remind them all to be back before daybreak with a south bird.

No matter what.

In the mean time, I made myself useful in helping where I could.

Since I could breathe underwater, they had me applying steel beams along the Merry's hull as a reinforcement. I was growing slightly worried with how much metal work we were applying to the ship. Will we slowly start to sink with all this heavy assed metal?

During one of my trips to the surface for more supplies, I heard Nami, Sanji and Usopp screaming bloody murder. Something about bugs?

As much as my curiosity was peeked, I had a job to do…

I was on my last one, when, all of a sudden, there was this great splash above me, and the ship started to shake and groan from the pressure of something hitting the side of this ship at just the right angle. The damage down to it caused the entire front quarter of the ship to separate and crash onto the shore!

Poor Going Merry's sheep's head part of its figure head went flying off into the water, where it floated dejectedly.

I swam to the surface and saw that it was Shoujou that was floating in the water, covered in blood, and completely passed out.

Gasping in shock, I swarm him over the shore, so that he wouldn't risk drowning. My captain liked the monkey brothers now that the misunderstanding between us all had been cleared up. What could have done this to them? Or more accurately, who? Fuck, what if their still around? Where is Cricket and Mashira? No way they'd have let something like this happen to Shoujou without a fight! I thought as I shoved the large orangutan like man onto the grass.

Once I'd gotten him up on the grass where he wouldn't risk falling back into the water, I heard a cackling laugh. It was very distinctive, and after what happened earlier today, there was no way I'd ever be able to forget what it sounded like.

It was Bellamy the Hyena.

Fuck!

He was telling his crew to take all the gold with them, and since I could no longer hear the sounds of battle, this meant that Mashira and Cricket were probably in a similar state as Shoujou.

Double Fuck!

I couldn't just "not" do anything. I had chosen to stay behind to prevent this exact kind of shit…with all the help Cricket and the Monkey Brothers were giving us, I had to act. My crew and more importantly, myself, would never be able to forgive me if I did nothing.

I swam over to where I'd left my sword, bag and all the clothes I'd been wearing from the waist down from earlier. Having had the opportunity, I'd taken off my pants before jumping into the sea and changing into my tail.

Something the Monkey Brothers and Cricket had enjoyed seeing, as I'd stripped right there at the coast. I'd thought that they were still inside, gathering the supplies we'd need to reinforce the Going Merry, but it didn't take them nearly as long as I thought it would have. Those perverts would have had permanent brain damage if Nami was still here, I'm sure.

Pulling myself up from the water level and onto dry land is never easy, especially when the water level is so much lower than the ground level like it is here. But I had excellent arm strength for a reason. Hmmm, maybe Zoro should look into using this as a method for strength training? He's always looking for new and better ways to work out…

Slipping on my clothes, I looked for Cricket and Mashira. My first priority was to get them to safety and then get the gold. Lives were more important than some gold, and I could easily get the gold back after they were safe.

Peeking out around the corner of Cricket's cardboard cutout of his house, I was saddened to see the large hole through the top half of it.

That must have been where Shoujou was flung through…Fucking bastard! I thought as I heard Bellamy say to Cricket, thus letting me know Cricket was still conscious at least, "Old man...it's time to grow up. HEhahahahaha! The City of Gold is nothing but Norland's imagination. If you want to become a pirate of the 'new age', you should at least learn that fantasies will never become true! HEhahahaauahaha!"

Cricket was panting roughly, but he was standing. Bloody, dirt covered and littered with bruises that would surely be black and blue come morning light. But he stood tall.

I slowly stepped around Bellamy's crews back, quietly taking down each member I came into contact with. So far, no one had noticed their numbers dwindling.

Fucking amateurs, I thought as the blonde woman that had been hanging all over "Big Knife Sarquiss" back at the bar went down with a single hit to the back of her skull.

As Bellamy turned away, and I crouched down so that I was even more out of sight, see? Sometimes being small is helpful...FUCK! I JUST CALLED MYSELF SMALL! FUCKING SHIT-ASSED DAMN IT, JUST ANOTHER REASON TO DESTROY THIS FUCKTARD-PRICKS CREW! I internally screamed as Cricket called out to Bellamy, "hold it, kid…" he coughed as he tried to light a cigarette, all cool and calmly collected, "A chicken, who doesn't have the guts to fight with fantasies, like you, should not be talking about how to be a Pirate!"

okay...I'll admit it, he looks pretty bad-assed like that...never going to smoke though. Fucking Cancer Sticks…things'll kill ya just as surely as my blade. More so, in some cases…

Cricket's taunt worked.

Bellamy looked over at him from over his shoulder as his sadistic grin stretched wide, "what did you just say?"

I smiled, and with only three more moves, there was only five of the twenty people that Bellamy had taken ashore left standing. They were too closely together for me to continue sneak attacking them from behind, so this would have to do. I felt these were much better odds.

That is, until I saw Bellamy's fucking Devil Fruit abilities for myself.

He ate the Spring-Spring Fruit, enabling him to coil the springs that made up his arms and legs so tightly that his "spring hopper" move was border lining lethal upon impact.

Cricket may have been retired from the pirate spotlight, but in no way did it mean he'd gotten weak. All those days of deep-sea swimming, along with probably having to fight off sea kings while underwater, made for the man to be a strong individual.

However, he was sadly no match for Bellamy's devil fruit.

Slipping up behind Sarquiss, I ambushed him into the ground. The three others who I'd left standing slipped into defensive fighting stances and Bellamy stood up and allowed the springs to fade away from his body.

They only stood down long enough to look me in the eye because I'd placed my sword up along Sarquiss's neck after grabbing him by the hair and lifting his head up so his neck was exposed. If he so much as twitched, then Bellamy would be looking for a new first mate.

"Oi, Bitch. What do you think you're doing?" Bellamy asked, smile finally absent from his face as he looked at me.

"Drop the gold, and back away from Cricket and Mashira. Now." I stated softly yet clearly. In the silence my voice carried easily enough.

I pulled Sarquiss's hair a little tighter, making the pussy wince as my sword scraped along his Adam's apple, causing a trickle of blood to slide down. The moon light glinted off of my sword's edge, and I saw Bellamy's eyes narrow at the sight of his crewmate's blood.

"What's it going to be, Bellamy?"

His smile returned as he laughed, it took him a moment to settle down enough so that he could speak, "my, my...who knew that you were such a talent? Taking down almost my whole crew without a sound...what? Are you StrawHats assassin?"

I didn't move, instead I whispered menacingly, "if I was, you'd already be dead."

Bellamy laughed again and said, "is that so? Tell me girl, why don't you join MY crew? Your skills are wasted on that dreamer's ship."

I scowled and said, "let me think...hmm...NO. Sorry, not sorry, but I refuse to serve under someone weaker than me."

I saw his veins bulge along his temple, and I smirked at his rage.

"What was that?" he whispered, and by the tone of his voice I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'd royally pissed the guy off now.

Good. If he were pissed, he'd make mistakes and I could kill him easier. His crew were too big of cowards to bother with me once I did so. They'd run and not even bother dragging his cooling corpse behind them. The piss-ants.

Sarquiss, from beneath me, squirmed despite my sword digging into his neck to scream at me, "Bellamy's a thousand times stronger than you! Some no named girl with a sword? HA!"

Turning his focus onto Bellamy in front of him, he cried out, "don't worry about me, Bellamy! Finish this bitch!"

I rolled my eyes, and whispered loud enough to be heard, "that's only because my friend in the marines doesn't want to accept that I've become a pirate. Trust me, once my name is heard, there won't be anyone who will think I'm just "some girl with a sword", fucking dumbass."

Things seemed like they were going alright, Bellamy had dropped the sack full of gold, and taken five steps closer to me, thus away from Cricket and Mashira.

Unfortunately, that was when all hell broke loose.

Sarquiss was such a big man, that I was unable to feel it when his other hand managed to grasp onto his "big knife".

There must have been some kind of visual cue that I missed between Bellamy and Sarquiss, because in between one step and the next, Sarquiss pushed himself up and away from my sword, practically bending his spine backwards in order to do so.

At the same time, Bellamy had changed his legs back into springs and with a cry of "spring snipe" he dashed straight for me.

I blocked the strike from Sarquiss, who'd managed to flip himself over and had attempted to stab me in the chest. But this left me wide open for Bellamy's attack.

I was launched away from Sarquiss and Bellamy, who landed right besides Sarquiss. I skidded along the ground and was forced to stop when my back hit the outer wall of Cricket's house. The impact forced me to cough up some blood, but I didn't feel any of my ribs or other bones break, so there was that small miracle. I'd avoided hitting my head on the wall, so no need to worry about concussions either.

silver lining...

I pulled myself to my feet as I heard Bellamy's laughter ring out before he taunted me with trying to take on more than I could chew.

Brushing myself off of "imaginary" dirt, (which wasn't so imaginary since I actually was now covered in dirt and grass stains) I asked mockingly, "was that supposed to hurt? If that was your best shot, you don't deserve that 55 million bounty. Fuck, I wouldn't have given you my Captain's starting bounty of 30 million."

Bellamy's blood vessels popping up along his head and neck when he got pissed was a great way for me to judge his level of mad...oh, cool... I wonder if I can make him pop a blood vessel?

Sarquiss asked to be the one to take her (me) down, and I scoffed, "Puuuulease~ if Captain Cackles over here can't take me on, what makes you think that YOU, the weaker and therefore more inferior crewmate, could ever hope of taking me on?"

"Shut up you bitch!"

"Oh, so original! I've NEVER heard that one before…" I overly exaggeratedly rolled my eyes to up the sarcasm.

Sarquiss was growing red in the face as he spluttered.

While I was fighting with Sarquiss, I didn't notice that Bellamy was almost literally kicking the life out of Cricket.

That pissed me off and I internally chastised myself. Just another reminder that I shouldn't have taken my eyes off the damned enemy like Dad used to say. Fuck me sideways.

With a reversed grip upper cut, I slashed Sarquiss's forearm along the inside, and he was forced to drop his knife.

He screamed from the wound, but I didn't have the time to mock the pansy piece of shit, instead I used the momentum to backflip out of the way of Bellamy, who'd left kicking Cricket at Sarquiss's scream of pain. He was trying to clothesline me from the back with his spring fruit powers, but due to my backflip into the air, he missed.

I landed in a low crouch and got a good look at the four men left awake.

The three who I'd left awake, that weren't Bellamy and Sarquiss, were busy hauling away their comrades that I'd already taken out.

I'd only left half of them alive, and I could see tears were already streaking down the only woman who was still awakes face as the two still conscious men helped move their crew. With each discovery of a dead crewmate, she'd cry out softly their name. I was too busy to focus on that though.

I flicked my glance away from them, having only spared them a quick glance to see if they were going to join the fight, when Bellamy roared in rage.

It looked like he'd only just learned of the fact that several of his men were dead by my blade. I gripped my sword tighter as he launched himself too fast for me to see. His fist hit me in the solar plexus, and I coughed out a glob of blood from the blow, staggering back but managing to keep my sword up in guard position.

Shit...that fucking hurt…

I rolled across the grass again to avoid a second hit, sliding to a stop next to Cricket's prone form.

I had to lean on my sword from where I'd thrust it into the ground in order to stand up. I was panting heavily, as my body spasmed from the pain of the forced change in my legs and the two major hits I'd taken from Bellamy. I could tell I only had one or two more of those spring powered hits in me before I went down for the count.

Fuckity, fuck, fuck! FUCK!

Bellamy laughed at my expression when I glanced down at Cricket, who was just barely awake. Blood was dripping from multiple wounds on his body, and that was just the parts that I could see from his back. I didn't even wanna think about what his front half looked like.

I forced myself to stand tall, even as Sarquiss screamed out profanity for my attack to his "sword arm". I scoffed at him and whispered out, "if you call yourself a swordsman, then I must be a bird."

He snarled at me and tried to punch me, but with how far away he was from Cricket and my positions, I had plenty of time to dodge the blow and slash him on the back as he passed me by.

He fell to the ground, completely blacked out, and Bellamy snarled at me for taking down his right-hand man.

I turned to face him head on and found out the hard way how stupid it was to take my eyes off of an opponent as strong as Bellamy was. Every second counted, and it had taken me five precious seconds to finish off Sarquiss.

Bellamy had used the distraction that Sarquiss provided to "spring snipe" me again.

I was sent flying clean through the center of Cricket's house and skipped over the water three times before I started sinking below the waves.

Just before my head sank below the waves, I heard Bellamy's cackling laugh as he told the last two of his men and the one woman to grab Sarquiss and the gold before they left.

When I was fully submerged my legs changed and I felt a new sense of strength surge through my blood. How dare he?!

The rush of adrenaline I'd gained from changing to my mermaid form only gave me the strength to pull myself up to rest besides Shoujou along the bank.

As soon as I was out of the water all my newfound strength left me, and I collapsed there on the shore with my grip on my sword so strong that my knuckles were white even after I passed out.

I came too when Zoro started shaking my shoulder.

I could hear Sanji asking who could have done this from next to Shoujou, and Chopper was screaming about the amount of bandages he would need to treat us all.

Will was besides Zoro, both of them worked together in carrying me over to where the house was. Luffy was kneeling down besides Cricket and I vaguely heard Cricket mutter, "Sorry...I'm truly sorry!"

Luffy tried to tell him to save his strength, but Cricket wasn't to be deterred.

"There was nothing I could do, even with your mermaid friend's help. We're pathetic! But...there's still time to strengthen the ship before sunup!"

Cricket sat up despite the pain he must have surely been in. Luffy tried to get him to tell them what had happened, but Cricket didn't want them to worry about it right now since we had more important things to be thinking about at the moment.

Robin was holding the South Bird that they'd gone into the forest in search of, a small frown on her face at seeing us all beat up. At the sight of it, Cricket said, "ah, great! You caught yourself a South Bird! Perfect!

I whispered out, "it was Bellamy," right as Nami yelled out for Luffy about all the gold Cricket had in the house being gone. Because Nami had yelled, no one but Zoro heard me. He frowned down at me, I shrugged.

Cricket tried to wave it off as junk, to forget about it, but we all knew the importance that gold was to Cricket and the Monkey Brothers.

Usopp yelled out, "what do you mean, "junk"? It took you ten long years of diving into the ocean and torturing your body until you found that gold! You can't just…"

"Quiet!" Cricket said with a side glare, silencing Usopp mid-sentence.

"It's alright...this is our problem. I'm grateful for your friend for trying to fight on our behalf, and I'm sorry for not being able to stop them from hurting a member of your crew as my guests. But Listen! If they all work on it, the Saruyama Alliance can fix and reinforce that ship, no problem. I'll have 'em finish in time for morning! There won't be any trouble with your departure tomorrow!"

Zoro, and thus Will, walked over to inspect the graffiti on the side of Cricket's wall, and pointed out to Will the graffiti that had been added to Cricket's house while I'd been knocked out.

It was the jolly roger for Bellamy's crew.

At the sight of Bellamy's jolly roger my blood boiled in anger and slight humiliation.

I hated to lose.

"Listen! We will send you into the sky, without fail!" Cricket declared.

Zoro had waited for Cricket to say his piece before pointing out the jolly roger to Luffy. His call had drawn everyone else's attention to the mark as well, and Nami was the one to connect the dots to it belonging to Bellamy's crew.

Luffy stood up, and Zoro asked him, "want help?"

Tilting his hat down to cover his eyes, he said in a forced calmness that I was beginning to associate with Luffy's quiet wrath, "No, I can do it alone."

Will passed Zoro my tail, which meant that Zoro was holding me bridal style once again with my tail trailing down onto the grass, and said to Luffy, "wait, Captain. I'd like to go with you, they hurt my Nee-san."

Luffy looked at him for a long and searching moment before he nodded once. Neal, who I only just realized had been sitting perched on the roof of Cricket's destroyed home, flew down to land on Will's left shoulder.

Nami yelled out, "No, Luffy! Will! Don't be stupid! We set sail in only three hours!"

Will walked up to her and placed his hand on her shoulder to calm her down, and said, "don't worry, Nami! If we take too long, Neal can fly us over to the ship as a last resort."

Luffy nodded and asked Robin, "If I run along the coast, will I reach the town from this afternoon?"

Robin, still holding the South Bird they had captured upside down, said, "yes, you will."

Cricket stared at them wide eyed, and asked, "hey, Kid?! Where're you going?! Don't be a fool! Do you know who you're dealing-"

Zoro stood in front of Cricket while still holding me up, cutting him off as he offered his precious Wado Ichimonji, saying as he did so, "if you wanna stop him, use this. Not sure how effective it'd be with her brother," he tilted his head to me, and I smirked as I shook my head no. Will's shield would block it without sea stone to break it.

Cricket looked along the blade up to our faces before turning back to look at Luffy and Will's fading backs as they marched away. As Will and Neal hit the tree line, I heard Neal say, "if we encounter those stupid locals again I'll fly us all past the forest. Bugs should NOT grow to that size this side of the Red Line."

Cracking his knuckles, I heard Luffy call back to us all, "I'll be back by morning!"

Nami grabbed Luffy's arm and made sure to remind him, "remember Luffy, THREE hours. If we delay our departure any more than that, you'll lose your chance to go to Sky Island!"

All I could think about was Neal's comments about bugs being the size of the Red Line…

what the fuck do bugs that big even eat?

In the meantime, I was given bandages by Chopper, had changed my clothes once my tail reverted back to my legs, and everyone then proceeded to get to work on fixing up the Going Merry.

Shoujou and Mashira's men came back from their ships, they'd been having a dinner party there, and started helping us out with the repairs. Their merry making had been so loud that they hadn't heard a thing of the fight.

Oh well, what's done is done, and all that. Its not like we had access to a time traveling devil fruit that'd let us go back and change shit, so why bother thinking about it.

First things first, we had to re-fix all the damage that Bellamy had done to the ship before we could reinforce it the way Cricket was saying we needed to.

Thankfully, Mashira and Shoujou's men were experienced divers and they no longer needed me to be underwater for the repairs.

I don't think I had any more transformations in me for the day. Already my stomach and back was bruising up from where Bellamy had hit me into the house and skipping over the water. Chopper stated I was lucky that my spine hadn't shattered, likely only due to my mixed heritage making my bones denser than an average person.

I worked alongside Usopp and listened to him marvel over how tough Mashira and Shoujou were to being back up and working like they were just fine.

I didn't point out the limping or the grimaces of pain I saw the pair sport when they twisted too far or hefted too much onto their shoulders. Their pride was on the line, and they couldn't afford to look weak in front of their underlings.

Cricket refused to just sit still during Chopper's administration of medical attention, so Chopper ended up riding Cricket piggyback while applying his bandages and salves as Cricket sawed away on some logs.

If it weren't such a serious situation, I'd have laughed at the comedic sight.

Zoro was on ship, attempting to repair the mast again, and as I gazed upon our ship, I grew concerned. Just how much more can she take before she fails on us? This is what, the second or third time we've had to patch up the mast? And her entire front half split off this time! We should start looking for a shipwright soon...before it's too late.

I heard Nami ask Zoro why he didn't go with Luffy, and almost blew my cover of eavesdropping on everyone when Zoro burst out annoyed, "it's always 'don't fight! Do this! Don't go! Go!' With you!"

"No! I mean, they beat you, too!"

"Beat? They weren't really standing in our way, you know. Fights that leave nothing but sympathy are rough," Zoro calmed down and tried to explain to the navigator.

"What? Are you an idiot?" Nami asked with her eyes half lidded and her arms crossed under her bust.

"Shut up and get lost! You're in the way!" Zoro's short patience finally ran out as he yelled at Nami.

Oh hey, Zoro's shark teeth came out! They hardly ever do! I thought bemused as I watched his muscles ripple up his arm as he lightly bonked the mast he was standing next to while yelling up to Nami who was standing up on the railing leading to the kitchen.

Nami's own much larger and more impressive shark teeth came out as she snarled down to Zoro, "I'm what?! You're the one who never listens!"

"Why do I have to listen to you!?"

Usopp called out, having looked over when the two started to yell, "Hey, now! Be careful there! Are you guys insane?! This ship is our treasure! Hey! I said stop!" I finally lost it and started laughing at everyone.

Robin smirked as her devil fruit powers lent a helping hand, literally, to everyone around.

Sanji started yelling at Zoro for yelling at his "Nami-swan" and that led Zoro and Sanji to start fighting on the shore, which made me laugh harder.

If I clutched my abs a little tightly out of pain with each giggle and consequential hiccup that followed, only Chopper knew.

Somewhere, out on the ocean blue, Mihawk was looking over the newly updated bounty posters for our crew. We didn't know it yet, but there were three posters.

One was for Luffy, he'd had his bounty increased by 70 million, leaving his bounty at 100 million belly.

One was for Zoro, who's starting bounty was listed at 60 million.

And the last?

Was mine.

My poster had my full name, Wisteria Duncan on it, and had a picture of me as Zoro hauled me through the warzone at Alubarna. My hair was whipped back, flying with the wind, or the speed in which Zoro was running, you could just make out Zoro's white shirt and green-black bandana to the left of the picture. But the main focus was my face as I snarled at some B.W. agent I had just slashed with my sword.

My starting bounty was for 45 million belly.

Wanted Alive Only.

(When I later finally saw my bounty, I cursed out Smoker and Tashigi for being responsible for listing it as alive only, hoping that the entire base of LogueTown hadn't made such a fuss as to get court martialed over the protestation.)

Mihawk mused, "so...these are the ones who defeated Sir Crocodile, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea…? Monkey D. Luffy and Roronoa Zoro…So those kids've grown to the point that they can shake up the World Government..."

He thought back to the day he met them at the Baratie in East Blue, and his excitement at their potential for the future with a chuckle before looking back down to my bounty poster. Or more specifically, at my sword that was along the right hand side of the picture.

"Duncan…. huh? What is your relation to John Riley, I wonder?

Nor did I know about the fact that the Red-Haired Pirates and the Whitebeard Pirates were meeting up for a world-shaking drink exchange over the topic of Ace's hunting of their traitor known now as Blackbeard.

And how much their meeting was throwing the Marines into a panic, making it a topic of discussion for the highest sector of the World's Government's men, "the Five Elder Stars" themselves. It was set to the side though as they tried to figure out who to choose for the new Warlord position since we had taken down one of them and refused to fill the slot ourselves.

Nor did I know that all the remaining Warlords had been summoned to MarineFord to ask for their input on who they thought would make a good addition. Even if only three of them showed up to attend the meeting. Those being, "Doflamingo, Bartholomew Kuma and Mihawk, who showed up slightly late, right as the meeting was starting.

A meeting that was headed up by the Fleet Admiral of the Navy, himself, Sengoku. I'd never met the man, as he was far too busy running the entirety of the Navy from their Headquarters in MarineFord. All I knew of the man was that he was constantly wearing a seagull on top of his Marine standard Cap. Marking him as the Fleet Admiral.

Mihawk explained how he'd only came there to act as an onlooker as he was interested in the pirates that they were going to be discussing, namely, us.

I didn't get to meet Lafayette, who had snuck into the meeting as a means to propose his "captain", aka Blackbeard, as a candidate for being the new Warlord.

If I had, I probably wouldn't have been able to stop my blabbermouth from spouting how idiotic I found his appearance to be.

I also was absent from Whitebeard's reaction to the letter Shanks had entrusted to his new rookie member, Rockstar. Who was eager to prove his usefulness to Shanks and had taken the letter to Whitebeard personally.

Poor fellow.

When we did hear about it through the grapevine, Will had explained that "pops" didn't have time for letters. Hated them, in fact. Whitebeard preferred face to face meetings so he could get a feel for the person's intent and how strongly they felt about the matter.

Apparently Whitebeard felt like calling everyone but a very select few as "kids" or "brats". Unless they were his "sons" (aka, members of his crew) then they were just labeled as "son/daughter" or by their name.

Will claimed that the only ones he'd ever heard Whitebeard not address as brats or kid was Garp The Fist, Sengoku, Kiado, any of Roger's former Crew, and LinLin (when I asked who that was, he deadpanned, "Big Mom's real name is LinLin Charlotte, Sis. As a wanna-be bounty hunter, I'd've thought you'd know that." Let's just say that for the next two days, Will had to rewash all his laundry due to the itching powder I'd laced into his clothes in retaliation for that smartassed remark.)

Another thing Whitebeard was prone for, was his alcohol consumption.

Will claimed he had his own private stash of, "the good stuff" that he usually only drank on special occasions, but most of the time the Nurses kept a sharp eye out for his daily consumption of alcohol.

Will claimed too, that it was a running gag on the ship. Whitebeard privately acted like the mixture of a doddering grandfather, and stern yet loving father to all those who sailed under his name. If a "son" successfully sneaks him some alcohol past the Nurses then they got the "special" privilege of not having deck swabbing duty for a month.

(Unless you were an idiot and tried to prank Marco and got caught. Cough, cough, *Ace, Thatch, Haruta, Will,* cough, cough)

Everyone pretended that they didn't know the other's role in the 'game' but for that first week after said success, the nurses usually would play the silent treatment to said brother.

Will claimed that only Marco and Jozu, the first and third division commanders refrained from joining in on said 'game'.

Personally, I thought it was funny, yet pretty stupid too.

We also had no idea what our new bounties meant to the Blackbeard pirates.

When Teach saw our captain's bounty being at the 100 million mark, he'd decided that he and his three crewmates that were with him at Mock town would take us all on and use us to further his own plans on becoming a Warlord.

He'd bumped into Sarquiss along the side of his arm that I'd cut and tried to continue walking away. Sarquiss had ran his mouth and in annoyance, Blackbeard, aka, Marshall D. Teach, had cut him down without a second thought.

At that time, his crew consisted of Jesus Burgess, a hand-to-hand fighter that was his first mate.

Van Augur, who was the scary assed sniper that had shot down the seagulls five miles out from the Island earlier that morning.

His Doctor, Doc Q and his sickly Horse, who'd almost given Luffy a rigged Apple-Bomb as a twisted form of "thank-you" in helping them get up off the ground back in town.

And Lafayette, who was busy at MarineFord, and thus not in town to help with our "capture".

You have NO idea how long I've waited to update the cover with this picture :D this is the painting I did out of watercolors of the one that Will paints, as described above…

It's his North and South Birds painting…also gives you a little more of a clue as to what I imagine Neal's parrot form to look like…

Again, sorry for the mix up!