Why wasn't life simple? Couldn't Alex have a little bit of peace once in awhile? Those thoughts whirled inside of her head; she had her shoulders hunched wanting to make herself as small as possible. Since leaving the bar the girl had wandered around the town in a slightly worried daze, eyes darting from person to person, most of them were pirates, though lucky not the pirates she was so intent on avoiding.
Why couldn't it have been anyone else? She could feel her guts twisting, shivers of anxiety ran under her skin, making her sweat, she clutched her arms tightly they had been scratched to pieces with all the stress. A slight tremor in her shoulders, however she refused to let it show, though she didn't do a very good job at it. She was trying to keep face carefully blank, she took deep calming breaths and tried not to think about it.
From what the lady had told her, the crew mostly stayed in the docks only venturing into town for supplies. That so far had only been two of them, Marco the Phoenix and Diamond Jozu. As for their captain, he had only been sighted overseeing his ship's repairs...
Shaking her head she decided to focus on something else, anything else was better then thinking about him. She passed by some stalls, tired looking merchants sat behind them, dark circles or nervous twitchy eyes followed her.
Every so often Alex would swipe items that caught her eye, nothing that was all that important, just more things to add to the growing haul of objects that were stashed in her hair. She could feel her body growing heavier, a telling sign that she would need to sort through her stolen stuff soon before it got to heavy to carry. It was a real shame she couldn't store food or water; it would be very helpful; The kid wouldn't have to worry about being hungry all the time.
As the day progressed into the evening, she started to think about finding somewhere to sleep. This town had lots of places to hide, old buildings were common place, some only held together by balancing wooden beams, probably not great for sleeping in. Alex could just imagine her luck, she'd be sleeping, minding her own business when the whole building would collapse on top of her. Yeah, no thanks.
She eventually came across a shed behind a rundown shop, it was probably the store house. Alex picked the lock with practiced ease and ventured inside. She was met with stacks of wooden crates and bags of vegetables stuffed haphazardly around the room. Closing the door behind her, the blonde grinned delighted as she immediately began rummaging through the stocks in search of dinner. She stuffed her face full of whatever her hands happened to grab, there was nothing better then a full stomach! Alex had learned that packing it in was vital to survive, because the next meal was never guaranteed, so she had to make the most of it.
Once satisfied, the girl dragged herself over to one of the empty crates, flopping over into it. She settled down, patting the wooden planks trying to find the comfiest spot, there really wasn't one, so in a last-ditch effort at some kind of comfort she shifted to her lion form. Somehow anywhere was comfortable when she was a lion, even a poky little crate.
This form was quite a lot bigger than human Alex, though that didn't take much to be honest, she was only four foot three, very small for her age. As for what she looked like, she was just your average lion. Nothing particularly special, the only telling sign that she was a human was her curly blonde fringe that hung in front her good eye, but even then, it could be argued that it was a simply a mane. But she was a lioness, they weren't supposed to have manes so... well it didn't really matter Alex, she was comfy that's all she cared about right now.
Relaxing she closed my eyes, curling up into a ball, the days events slowly disappearing, the anxiety slowly subsiding. Alex had been on this island all day and she hadn't seen even one Whitebeard pirate, so perhaps she wouldn't. That was a nice thought... Sleep took over.
The next morning came and went, the girl left the store house first thing without any difficulties, everybody was probably still in bed at that time. Shifting back to her human form, she let out a sigh of relief. So far so good, nothing bad had happened.
That was until she went into town again, it was noticeably missing the dozens of pirates that had been very present yesterday, okay weird. More worrying was that it wasn't just the pirates that were missing, so were the townspeople. Something was very wrong.
Alex nervously trotted down the empty streets, searching for any signs of life, the only thing she was met with was a cold breeze, which made her shudder, it wasn't just the cold, the young girl was starting to panic. Where was everyone? What happened? Was it their doing?
It didn't matter how strong a pirate crew was, they couldn't just make a town's worth of people disappear overnight. Which meant something else was happening. The blonde stifled a tiny scared breath, she carried on, looking through empty shop windows, she even started to call out. She just wanted to see one person, a single person would be better then this quiet emptiness.
Alex's body was shaking violently, head spinning, her claws digging themselves into her arm in a nervous tick. Her blue eye was wide, darting back and forth, hoping that she might catch sight of someone.
Then the earthquake started...
She was suddenly running over uneven ground, deep rumbling echoed in the air, it was almost charged with static, as if the earth itself was angry. As Alexandra dashed over the crumbling streets, her ears picked up on the battle crys and suddenly it all made sense. However, she didn't have time to think, the buildings were falling all around, it took every ounce of concentration to avoid the falling rubble or to leap over the gaping holes opening in the cobble stone pavement.
The kid didn't know where she was going, the only thing rushing inside was the desire to survive! She had to survive! She needed to find Papi and Mother, Alex couldn't do that if she was dead. Those thoughts pushed her on, that was until the marines and pirates were swarming all around her, a full-blown battle was underway even though she had mostly escaped the earthquake, the girl was now avoiding being killed by people! This was not her day!
She bounded out of the way of a Marine with an axe who swung it straight at her head, only to then have a sword brought down on her the next second. She managed to block it with her Bo-staff, trying to push the assailant off, only to launch herself out of the way as a ball and chain hit the sword wielding Marine in the stomach.
A man with dark eyes and dreadlocks had noticed the little blond kid through the fighting crowd, his only thought was to wonder what a small child was doing in this mess. He noticed a Marine take a swing at them, which he did not like, weren't they supposed to protect little brats?
The brat managed to block the sword surprisingly, the dreadlocked man took this opportunity to throw his living ball and chain Obsidian at the assailant. The child rolled out of the way as Obsidian ploughed into the Marine, once he was down Obsidian shuddered to life, dragging her chain along, probably to look at the kid. However, said child dove into the crowd once more, leaving the man concerned, but he had no time to follow after them. He just hoped they'd be alright.
Alex squeaked, she did not like the look of the man who had thrown the ball and chain, he was staring straight at her. The chain shuddered as if it had come to life as it began to slither towards her. Alex quickly decided that it was not something she was willing to fight, with that decision made, the girl jumped into the fray of battle hungry individuals once again, almost being chopped in half in the process.
The ground was shaking again, while no cracks had open beneath her feet, she couldn't help but swallow a growing lump in her throat, this wasn't good. Alex needed to find a place to hide, she ploughed through the crowd, dodging weapons along the way, her eye flying around in an attempt to find a safe place. There wasn't any, the deeper in she went, the more dangerous the people seemed to became.
Some marines had even chased the girl at one point having recognized her face from her bounty poster. In a battle like this one, it was honestly baffling, seriously? They were after someone with a low 21.000.000 Beli, they were after someone like her?! SERIOUSLY! Sure, she was wanted alive, but like could they not! Alex was just minding her own business!
Alex was hardly significant, maybe it was the name. That's what people always took notice of, perhaps it was because she was so close to that man right now? That made the blonde clench her fists, the anger boiled to the surface for a moment, a hot searing pain in her heart. She had nothing to do with that man! Nothing! But that anger quickly extinguished, replacing it with fear. She was way too close. He was probably somewhere in the area, fighting.
She flipped out of the way of a Marine with a large hacksaw looking thing, at least he wasn't chasing her... just trying to kill her instead. Somehow, Alexandra preferred that over being caught, if they did catch her, she wouldn't be treated well. The kid would probably be beaten stupid first and then given over to who ever wanted her alive. Then who knows? At any rate, surviving and being on the run, being free was what mattered. And she had every intention of that continuing. Who cares about that man! Who cares about the Marines! I was Magnhild Alexandra, the granddaughter of an amazing adventurer who had travelled the globe.
But with those thoughts came the fact that she wasn't paying attention, causing the girl to be almost trodden on. At the last second her animal instincts kicked in, making her dart to the side, skidding out of the way of a- a- Was that a Buddha? A humongous golden glowing Buddha with an afro! He turned his sharp deadly eyes on her, she could feel her knees knocking together, so she intelligently decided to just tell him to knock it off. "Oi, Bush head stop looking at me!" Alex kind of wished she could just punch herself in the face sometimes... maybe she would if she survived.
"You!" He roared, she laughed nervously, her face scrunching up in a wince, she rapidly stumbled into a full-blown panicked run, the Buddha made a hasty attempt at a grab.
Oh, come on! Him too! Why couldn't I keep my stupid mouth shut! She thought reprimanding herself. I'm hardly worth this trouble! There's person on this battle field worth billions of beli easy and you're after me! Why?! Go after that stupid old geezer!
"GO AWAY STUPID BUSH HEAD!" She threw over her shoulder in angry annoyance, not that he was going listen.
She barrelled her way through marines and pirates alike, desperately ducking the attempts that the stupid old Buddha made to grab her, all the while she was internally screaming GO AWAY GO AWAY GO AWAY... over and over.
She noticed that the fighting was starting to thin out all of a sudden, that was good right? Right! Wrong, her gaze fixed on the real reason there was no fighting going on here, because every single person was lying on the ground defeated, a mountain of bodies was piled high in front of a huge white warship. The figure head was that of a whale, black sails stood out in front of the bright sunny backdrop. And on top of the hill of Marines sat a man Alex recognized.
She felt a very sick feeling of fear churning in the pit of her stomach. Her lost eye almost seemed to throb, even through it was an empty void, the fathoms of pain seeped to the surface.
Alex was frozen stiff.
Her body wouldn't respond to the building panic forming, telling her to run, telling her to hide. She was going to die! He was going to kill her. That's what they all said, if Alex ever met this man, he would end her life on sight. That's what every single one of those- her mind went blank. White noise filled her ears, the world around her seemed to slow down, darkness crept up, she slammed her eye shut, she had it shut tight. Waiting for everything to end...
But life was still going on, nothing happened.
I'm fine?
Life carried on, when she opened her eye, she was still rooted to the same spot, yet the Buddha was still lost in the battle. The reality was that her panic had only lasted seconds, not an eternity like it felt. The man sat on top of the pile of Marines hadn't even noticed her, he was instead watching the battle.
She smiled despite the situation; she would live another day. The relief didn't last long as the golden afro man, finally appeared, Alex's body responded this time as she willed herself forward, bounding into a run once again.
Something sailed passed my her, something long and thin, it shone as it caught the light. A metal din rang out, followed by a thudding grinding sound, the Buddha had just caught the thing that had been thrown at him, she didn't dare look back.
"Sengoku did you really ditch our fight to chase around some little brat! I'm offended!" A voice boomed, it was full of mockery, however underneath it carried a sharp edge.
The guy chasing her was Sengoku!? The Admiral! Well, that was all kinds of horrifying, she called an Admiral 'Bush head'... the girl was surprised she was still alive.
Well, she should probably make the most of that, the blonde girl continued onwards, leaping over fallen marines, ignoring the sudden rumbling as Whitebeard and Sengoku clashed.
Alex wasn't sure where she was going to, but anywhere was better then here. Her ears rang as the sound of shattering glass was ripped through the air, it made her sensitive hearing hurt, to the point that it was almost disorienting. She staggered in confusion and slight pain, as she veered sideways not even noticing a huge crack opening up, splitting the battle field in two, she was thrown towards the earths open mouth. The kid managed to catch herself as she began to slide, digging her half transformed clawed fingers into the dirt and clambered on all fours at the steep up climb.
Every which way she looked the whole place was falling apart, holes were opening up everywhere and finally Alex realized why, it was the Yonko's doing, it was his power. She had heard the rumours, he possessed a powerful devil fruit that could end the world, now she could see that for herself. She was in such close proximity to him the quakes were right under her feet. If she didn't find a way out of here soon, she'd fall!
Her eye focused on a ship, more specifically the Yonko's ship, it was seemingly unaffected, the quakes would just cut short of it. Of course, he wouldn't hit his own ship. That was why his crew had suddenly started appearing nearby. It seemed as though they were readying themselves for departure. So that meant that the battle had started to clear up. Finally! Maybe there was strong possibility that they would be leaving.
Then she was going to be trapped with the Marines... with an Admiral! While they were fighting the pirates, the Marines had been less focused on her.
Well, there was a way to avoid them... No! There was no way! She flat out refused to do that! She shook her head wildly, not with him, Alex was never going anywhere near him. This was the closest she was ever going to get. Not after- No! She would find her own way out of here. She would survive another way.
Alex sprang over another crack, it opened wide almost trying to suck her in. She started to make her way back over to where the fighting had been, it was pretty empty now, only a couple of injured Marines were scattered around. However, the girl was stopped by a huge gaping crevice, how was she supposed to get over there? It was like a canyon; Alexandra could jump a fair distance but not something like that.
The ground shook again, she caught herself just as she was about tumble down the crevice, Alex had no choice she had to go back! The canyon was crumbling into itself, swallowing everything in its path, so she legged it over the splitting island. She came to a abrupt stop, as she realized there was nowhere else to go, the path in front of her was gone and she was stuck, the only place left was a broken crane hanging on to the edge of the bottomless pit. Alex could probably jump that far. She didn't have a choice; it was that or nothing. So, in a last-ditch effort the kid threw herself towards the chain hanging precariously over the hole, once she had it in her grasp she latched on like a lifeline and began to climb.
The crane was slowly sliding, she could hear the metal grinding against the stone, Alex started to pick up speed as she clambered up, desperation hammering at her lungs. The blonde wheezed painful breath's as she made it to the top, gasping at high up she had come, that wasn't what scared her, no what scared Alex was there was nothing underneath her anymore, the ground had collapsed around the crane, leaving it to be the only feature in a endless sea of black.
That and the Yonko's ship that was, it was still sat in the bay, while the land around had disappeared, it floated quite happily in the sea and with a sinking feeling the girl knew it wasn't too far away either, she could probably jump over there. Especially at this height. If she wanted to survive then she really had no other choice.
She wanted to find her mother and her papi and the only way Alex was going to be able do that was for her to live. Swallowing her fear, making sure her bandanna was covering her right eye with trembling fingers, she took the leap of faith.