YO!
Well, here it is! The final battle! Please note that this chapter WILL be quite long, so get some coffee brewing!
Also note that this is NOT the last chapter. It will be coming soon, but not THAT soon! *sniffs*
I also recommend listening to One Piece OSTs while reading this, like "Overtaken", just a suggestion! *sweatdroopy*
So, I hope you enjoy!
It was quite sunny, maybe about 4 in the afternoon, humid, and hot. The Strawhats marched side-by-side toward the top of the waterfall. They were all focused on their task, and thinking different things.
Zoro was hearing his swords' cry for blood. He was becoming impatient, and he had to be stopped several times because he kept finding shortcuts.
Nami was worrying about Luffy; could he REALLY have been convinced to sit back that easily?
Chopper was also worrying about him, but more about if he was moving too much at the camp.
Robin was thinking quite classified things that ordinary people would not be able to decipher.
Franky was curious on how Teddy was able to morph the animal-men.
Brook was thinking up of a KILLER joke that would make his crew laugh FO' SHO'!
However they all had the same expression on their face; pure determination and readiness to the battle before them.
Once they had reached the top of the waterfall, they could hear the unknown chatters of the Animal-Warriors. They stopped and Nami formed out a plan.
"Alright. Zoro, Robin, Chopper, and Franky. You stay here and distract the Animal-Men. I'll sneak into the base and try to find Usopp (andalsosanjitoo) and bring them out to finish the Teddy guy. Sound good?"
"Aye!" The others agreed. They all turned toward the camp, took a deep breath, and charged into the immense crowd of animals.
Nami waited until there was no one at the entrance of the tree-base, then silently sneaked in.
XXXXXXX
Fluffy was just chatting to a Elephant-Man about his new weapon when a sudden commotion erupted within the crowd. Before they could even comprehend what had happened, several of the weaker gunmen were down. Fluffy gritted his teeth.
"Come back for more-neko? Alright! We'll give them more!"
Fluffy aimed the tact to a green-haired man and fired some sort of electric shock at him. He seemed to know it was coming, as he jumped out of the way and just nailed him with the butt of his sword. Fluffy crashed to the ground and Zoro nonchalantly took the tact.
"Well, that was easy..."
Suddenly, the elephant that he had just been talking to loomed over him. Zoro leaned over backwards with a neutral expression, then his eyes widened and he narrowly missed a huge stream of fire shooting out of the beast's trunk.
"Shit! Not ANOTHER fire animal!"
The elephant laughed (more like tooted) and lifted his trunk up.
"Ah! You see I am a Tier 2 Animal-Warrior! I have been injected with the Blaze Stunt, not that you know what THAT is!"
Zoro narrowed his eyes and stood up slowly.
"What is it?"
"Well...it is- WHY WOULD I TELL YOU!?" The elephant huffed and pointed his trunk at him.
"Why should you care anyway? You're going to be burned to death either way!"
Zoro glared at him, then smirked in his typical bad ass fashion.
"Who says I'm going to burn to death?"
XXXXXXXXX
Chopper had charged in angerly, however, not one of the Animal-men even looked at him.
"Eh? Why won't anyone fight me?"
He looked around at the animals in confusion before the pig looked at him.
"Oi! Why aren't you fighting back Raccoon-Man?"
Chopper froze, then turned to his karate point and hiya'd the crap out of the pig.
"I. AM. NOT. A. RACCOON!" He shouted as the pig fell to the ground, smoking.
Chopper turned around, then saw a ton of animals glaring directly at him. Chopper swallowed, then ran off screaming as they chased him.
XXXXXXXXXX
"STRONG RIGHT! RADICAL BEAM! WEAPONS LEFT!"
Franky was beating off the horde of animals using all of his maneuvers. They just kept coming.
"Damn! They're stubborn!" Finally he could take a breather, but before long a creature whizzed passed him with incredible speed, knocking him to the ground.
"Wha?" He was hit again and fell on his face. He sat back up, sputtering grass, and saw a bird-man flapping in front of him.
"What the hell?"
The bird-man smirked, which looked quite odd as he had a beak, and he landed on the ground.
"I am a Tier 3 Animal-Warrior. What are you? A tin can?"
Franky's sunglasses twinkled and he lifted his arm.
"Can a tin can perform a triple-gun-cannon-mecha-ray with added flash-flare: color Purple/red with a SUPER reconcile base?!"
The bird had question marks floating around him as one of Franky's shoulders opened a small door. Three large guns popped out and Franky readied for attack.
"Franky TRIPLE FLASH RAY!"
Three large reddish beams shot from his shoulder and flung to the spot where the bird man was. However, the bird-man suddenly disappeared and the beam hit a large tree, engulfing it completely in a blinding purple light that could blind a man. Franky turned around suddenly and was hit with a mammoth force square on the back. He tumbled over on the ground, struggling to get up after the attack.
"Phht. Is that really the best you got, tin can?"
Franky stood up, stumbling, and glared at the bird.
"You're fast, I'll give you that."
The bird laughed.
"Well I AM a Tier 3 Warrior. I WAS injected with the Zip-Stunt!"
"The wha-what?"
The bird rolled his eyes and zipped so he was behind him again. Franky's eyes widened.
"It doesn't matter, I've got a cyborg to kill right now..."
XXXXXXXXXX
"Chopper-San!"
Chopper was still screaming around the battle-field when Brook picked him up and side-stepped casually out of the charging animal's way. Chopper stopped screaming and looked at the skeleton thoughtfully.
"Huh?"
"You might want to cover your ears..." He thought for a moment. "But I guess I don't have to...BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE ANY EARS TO COVER! YOHOHOHO-"
Chopper sighed and covered his ears. After Brook was finished, he took out his violin and lept up in the air.
"Nemuriuta Flanc!" He said as he played a sweet lullaby. Many animals looked up at him and instantly fell asleep. Soon, about a hundred or so sleeping animals littered the ground.
"Yohohoho! Victory!" He shouted energetically as he flashed the victory sign to Chopper. Chopper then screamed.
"LOOK BEHIND YOU!"
Brook turned around and screamed along with the reindeer. About five hundred more animals were staring dangerously at them.
Soon, Brook and Chopper were back to screaming maniacally around the battlefield, animals chasing after them.
XXXXXXXXXX
"Trienta Fluer: Clutch!"
Robin was struggling to keep all of her attackers at bay. She still had yet to get seriously injured, but she was clearly beginning to wear out from all of the clutching and strangling. She was about to preform a clutch on a dog-man, before she was hit with an extreme force on the side of her face. She crashed into a tree and slowly got up, panting.
"How did I not notice that I was about to get hit?"
Then she realized, it was the dog. He was looking at her with a slight smile on his face, not even breaking a sweat after that impressive hit.
"HAH! Puny human! You could NEVER compare to the strength of the Strong-Stunt!"
She narrowed her eyes and stood up.
"Diez Fluer!" She said. Five arms on either side connected, forming one long arm. Both of the arms grabbed the dog's arms and lifted him up in the air.
"Spin!"
Her arms began to spin the dog in the air like a pinwheel, going faster and faster. After a while she let go and the dog landed on the ground, stumbling with spirals as eyes. Robin gave a slight smile as she walked over to the dizzy animal, and broke his neck with her own arms. The proud dog fell to the ground with a gruesome crack.
"How shameful." She announced as she walked away to deal with some more animals.
XXXXXXXXXX
"USOPP?! (sanjikunareyouheretoo?) USOPP?! (sanjikuntooiguessmaybe)"
Nami had snuck into the tree-base and was now inching around corners trying to find the cell she had been in. Luckily she remembered the location, so finding the two was much easier than it could've been. There were no guards around, as most of them were fighting, so Nami walked toward the cell. Her eyes lit up when she saw both Usopp and Sanji staring at her with wide eyes.
"N-Nami?"
"Nami-Swan?"
She grinned and took out a key. They gawked at her.
"How'd you get a key?!"
"I swiped it from a guard that passed me."
Usopp and Sanji twinkled in happiness as Nami unlocked and opened the door. They walked out and Nami waited for them to exit, but Sanji stopped in front of her.
"Oi. Nami-Swan?"
Nami was exceedingly happy that she was seeing Sanji again, but she pretended to not care.
"What is it?"
"I-I'm..." He looked away, trying to gather his pride. Then he sighed.
"I'm sorry. That was extremely selfish of me. More than selfish. I just can't think of life without Luffy, or the others. Do you think Luffy will forgive what I said?"
Nami smiled and put her hand on his shoulder.
"Let's just say that Luffy probably wants you back on the crew more than you want to be back."
His showing eye lit up and he smiled.
"Alright then. We should probably get going! Come on Nami-Swan! I'll lead the way!"
Sanji zoomed up ahead and Nami ran after chuckling. An irk mark pulsed above Usopp's head and he ran after them.
"OI! WHAT ABOUT ME YOU BASTARDS!?"
Nami suddenly stopped Sanji, and Usopp ran into them. Nami shushed the men and pointed ahead. Twelve guards were looking around for the key they "lost". Nami pinched her nose.
"This would be easy IF I didn't have two bumbling morons with me...but..." She sighed and turned toward Sanji and Usopp.
"Alright. You have to stay VERY close to me...but not too close because I have personal space. You hear? Follow my every move."
Sanji and Usopp nodded, and Sanji whispered "Nami's so cute when she's serious." to himself before following her to the other wall.
"We're almost there." She announced after about fifteen minutes of sneaking. It was true, the door was almost in sight. Nami motioned for Usopp and Sanji to go running ahead while she checked to see if there were any guards. The men reached the door, and Nami was just about to head there herself, before she felt the familiar grab on her collar.
"Well well...Isn't it the Cutie?"
Sanji and Usopp's eyes widened and they shouted out.
"NAMI! IT'S THE BEAR!"
Teddy lifted Nami up, nearly choking her and laughed. Nami grabbed at her collar and glared at Teddy with fury.
"Let go of her!" Sanji yelled as he charged at the bear with his Diablo Jambe. Teddy noticed it and with a large swipe of his oversized paw, sent the cook flying into a wall.
"Sanji!" Usopp gritted his teeth and took out Karu Kabuto. But Teddy swiped him to the side before he could shoot a pop green. Sanji got up, spitting out rock and watched in horror as Nami was taken out of the base to who knows where, yet again.
"USOPP! WE HAVE TO GO FIND NAMI-SAN!"
Usopp got up coughing.
"Let's go!"
However, before they were able to leave, hundreds of guards surrounded them, leaving them unable to go after her.
"SHIT! Let's get these guys dealt with soon before anything happens to her!"
XXXXXXXXXX
Of all the other Strawhats outside, only Zoro noticed the large shape of Teddy climbing up the tree-base. He grinned evilly and blocked a trunk-swipe from the elephant. Then he rolled away from another fire-shot.
"Can you hurry this up a bit? I want to beat up the bear."
"Like HELL I'll let you do that swordsman!" The elephant shouted as he unleashed more and more fire in his direction. Zoro struggled a bit trying to dodge them, but then he noticed some commotion going on inside the base. This distracted him for a moment, which allowed the elephant to knock him violently to the ground. He grunted angerly and stood up. He placed his sword back in his mouth and readied for a devastating attack.
"Guess I'll have to beat you first huh? That's fine with me. I need a warm up anyway..."
.
Meanwhile, a pair of furious eyes emerged from the bushes, staring with killer rage at Teddy climbing the tree.
XXXXXXXXXX
"LET GO OF ME YOU STUPID BEAR!" Yelled Nami as Teddy climbed to the top of the tree-base. At the top, there was a large wooden platform with a destroyed pirate ship on top. They were mind-bogglingly high, so high the battles going on below seemed unimportant. Teddy laughed.
"Well...now we've got some privacy, don't we? None of your friends can reach up here anytime soon!"
Nami glared at Teddy with rage and fright. THIS was Bepo's father? It seemed so wrong! Even if they did look quite a lot alike with their white fur. She swallowed.
"Let me ask you something."
"Hmm?" Teddy looked at her quizzically. "What is it Cutie?"
"Do you know what has become of Bepo?"
Teddy's evil eyes narrowed and he let go of her suddenly. Nami fell to the ground harshly and looked up.
"How do you know of him?" He spat. Nami rubbed her head.
"He's your son, isn't he?! How can you treat your own son like that?! Did you know that he's a pirate in the New World now?!"
Teddy growled ferociously and glared at her with frighting eyes.
"What did you just say!?"
"I said Bepo is a pirate in the New World!"
Teddy didn't say anything for a long while, then he picked up Nami again and brought her inches to his face.
"That cowardly wimp of a son could never become a great pirate. No matter how hard he works! He'll always have the pure stupidity of my wife locked inside him! I don't need a son like him! I'm going to become the Pirate King!"
"LIKE HELL YOU ARE!" Shouted Nami as the fury inside her burst. "YOUR CREW ARE UNCIVIL ABOMINATIONS CREATED FROM THE DEAD BODIES OF THOSE YOU KILLED! YOU WILL NEVER BECOME THE PIRATE KING!"
Teddy looked dangerously at her. He huffed and laughed, which unnerved Nami greatly.
"And your wimp of a captain will? Where is he now? Oh! Perhaps his injuries from the last battle were too great and he's just sitting at the camp helpless! Eh? Am I right?"
Nami looked down. Teddy knew he had hit the nail right on the mark. He brought her closer to him and he smiled.
"Why have a Captain like that, when you could have one like me?"
Nami widened her eyes in fright. She was totally helpless. No one could come and save her. She couldn't defend herself. Was there anything she could do? She clenched her fist, when the sound of harsh panting sounded behind them. Teddy raised his eyebrows in surprise, and gently put Nami on the ground. Nami turned around in confusion and her mouth opened at the sight.
"L-LUFFY!?"
Luffy was standing at the other edge of the platform, panting from unexplainable rage and exhaustion from climbing. His eyes were fixed on the bear's, and both of his hands were clenched into fists. Nami almost became scared at how he looked; like a demon almost. Nothing moved for about three minutes, only the sound of heavy panting from Luffy. Then Nami shouted out.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?! YOU'LL KILL YOURSELF! LUFFY!"
Luffy didn't even react to the comment. He still stared into the bears eyes. Teddy crossed his arms and looked at him with an amused expression.
"Well! Looks like you AREN'T just sitting back doing nothing eh? Fine with me!"
No answer from Luffy. Nami just stared at him with fear. She KNEW he wouldn't just stay back! And with how he was looking right now, his safety was the LEAST of his concern. Luffy finally lifted up his eyes, and slowly lifted his arm.
"Gear...Second.." He muttered as he heated up. He waited a moment, before he broke the silence by leaping into the air and shouting "Jet Pistol!"
The pistol hit Teddy square in the jaw and he fell backwards, crashing into the broken ship. Luffy landed on his feet and pursed his lips, waiting for Teddy to stand back up. As soon as his head peeked from under the rubble, Luffy zoomed next to him and hit him with another pistol. Teddy rolled back to the platform and struggled to stand up coughing.
And he called LUFFY a wimp! Hah! Nami thought. Maybe he wouldn't push himself too hard after all.
Teddy stood up and weakly side-stepped another potential jet pistol and took out something. Luffy made a confused noise in his throat. It was a syringe filled with an opaque liquid. Teddy flinched at the sight of it, then jammed it into his arm, giving out a painful moan. Luffy and Nami watched as the bear tossed the now empty syringe aside and stared at Luffy with almost equal fury, panting just as he had done.
"What the hell was that?!" Yelled out Nami. Teddy turned his head toward her smiling.
"It's a...stunt. A...stunt to end...all stunts...you could say. Never...been tested..." He walked over to her.
"You think I'm...weak...Cutie? Well what do you think of...the only Tier 1 Animal-Warrior? The...user of the...All-Stunt?"
Nami was utterly confused, but it faded to fear when the now sweaty and hot bear grabbed her yet again and laughed in her face.
"All three stunts...Blaze, Zip,and Strong...combined into one...my greatest creation...Fire, Speed, and Strength...resistance to Haki...HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW?!"
"LET HER GO YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!"
Luffy screamed with more fury than Nami had ever seen before. Luffy zoomed next to him and prepared to bullet him straight in the face. Teddy saw it and zipped out of the way, causing Luffy to lose balance and crash to the ground. Teddy laughed.
"Is that the best you can do?"
Luffy stood up and him and the bear zipped around madly, trying to hit the other. Nami watched alertly. How would this end up? It was just like that frog, and that fire-lizard Usopp and Zoro fought. What if Luffy strained himself so much that his wounds would open up? Her fears greatened when she saw Teddy give a huge swipe of his paw and sent Luffy flying straight into the ship with remarkable force.
There was a moment of frightening silence, then Luffy emerged from the smoke, still standing, with a small trickle of blood running down the side of his face. He didn't show any signs of pain at all. Teddy raised his eyebrows at this. The Strong-Stunt was considerably strong; plus it included armament Haki...What kind of person could just stand up after being hit?
XXXXXXXXXX
MEANWHILE
Zoro had been burned. One small mistake; a trip. The elephant laughed in victory.
"HAH! You weak swordsman! This is the power of the ANIMAL-WARRIORS!"
Suddenly, Zoro's hand twitched. He began to stand up and he balanced himself on a sword, coughing. He narrowed his eye.
"Did you just call me 'weak?'"
The elephant flinched at Zoro's expression. Zoro then smirked and, before the elephant even knew what hit him, he fell to the ground with a large, deep cut on his chest.
"Oni Giri..." He said triumphantly as he sheathed his sword. After the elephant was down, he inspected his very serious burns.
"Oh well... I can still fight. I don't need Chopper."
MEAN-MEANWHILE
Franky stood over the unconscious bird-man, who's beak was completely destroyed. Franky lifted his sunglasses with surprise.
"Hmmm. I guess you shouldn't have tried to break my steel shoulders with that beak of yours. Ah. Well, I guess I'll go see if Robin needs help."
As Franky walked away, the bird-man sweatdropped in humiliation.
MEAN-MEAN-MEANWHILE
Brook and Chopper were clinging onto Robin in relief.
"THANK YOU SO MUCH ROBIN!"
Robin giggled and looked devilishly at the pile of animals she had broken the necks of. Then she looked back and smiled.
"No problem at all."
XXXXXXXXXX
Nami could not have been able to describe the battle. It was going so fast between Teddy's Zip-Stunt and Luffy's Gear Second, that she couldn't keep track. Every once in a while, one of the two would come crashing to the ground, but then they would retaliate and continue. It was amazing to watch.
"Paw SWIPE!"
"ARMAMENT!"
Luffy blocked another swipe with his Haki-infused arm, then took the chance to strike the bear in the gut with the other arm. Teddy coughed and stumbled backward. There was a moment of no movement. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Teddy zipped in front of him and shot a stream of fire in his direction. Luffy just barely dodged it by stretching away, but then, the worst thing that could have happened, happened. Luffy's eyes widened in pain and shock as he landed on the ground clutching at his chest. Nami seemed to realize what happened right away and she cried out.
"LUFFY!"
Blood soaked through the bandages and soon it turned from white to a very scary shade of red. Teddy looked at this and smirked, catching his breath.
"Well...looks like we know how THIS is going to turn out!"
Luffy coughed and looked up at Teddy, not giving in to the immense pain and exhaustion that he was feeling.
"How...? *pant pant* It's...not over...yet...*cough*"
"Look at you! You're nothing less than a dead man!"
Luffy began to wheeze, but he stopped, used every ounce of strength he could muster at that moment, and sent both of his legs flying toward Teddy. Teddy was so distracted by his pride that he didn't realize that Luffy had him pinned to the spot. Luffy kept his balance and sent his arms flying backward.
"Armament..." He choked out. He could feel another scar opening, but he pushed through.
"Gomu Gomu no..."
His arms became engulfed in flames.
"Red Hawk..."
He sent the arms flying back at Teddy, who's eyes widened in terror.
"BAZOOKA!" He screamed as the arms made contact with the bear and sent him flying off the platform in a raging fire, falling down to the battle below. Luffy flew backwards from the attack and tumbled on the platform for a good few seconds before coming to a sudden stop at the ship.
At the battle below, everyone heard something falling.
"What's that?!"
"Is something falling!?"
Teddy crashed in the middle of the battle field, on top of a large crowd of animal-men. Once the smoke cleared up, the utterly destroyed bear showed from the debris of the ground.
"EH!? TEDDY-SAMA!?"
The Strawhats were just as surprised.
"How'd he get so destroyed? Who did this?"
The animal-men were in complete chaos at the sight and they all went running back to the base. However, two very pissed-off and murderous men were waiting for them. The animals were surrounded, so they bowed their heads and accepted a complete, and utter defeat.
XXXXXXXXXX
At the platform on top of the base, everything was silent. Nami just stared at nothing in shock. However, once she gathered her thoughts, she quickly stood up and ran toward the ship, where Luffy lay, wheezing harshly.
"Luffy! You'll be alright! You got him! You're fine!"
Nami then looked down at his chest and saw that the bandages didn't show a speck of white anymore. She looked at Luffy desperately.
"Oi! Say something! Stop making me worry!"
Luffy opened his eyes to little slits and saw her. He coughed.
"Is...Bear-Bastard...away..?"
"Yes! Bear-bastard's away! We can all calm down now."
Nami then heard some faint gasping noises behind her. She turned around and saw the small statures of Arlen and Arsen gaping at Luffy with open mouths.
"S-Strawhat-San-Sama?!"
"ARLEN! ARSEN! GO GET CHOPPER RIGHT NOW!" She demanded. The boys flinched at her shout and saluted urgently.
"Aye! Nami-San-Sama!"
Nami turned back to Luffy, who was grinning happily as he wheezed.
"Oi...Nami! Don't...worry so much!...Like I'd really...die here...idiot!"
Nami began to tear up and she slapped her forehead.
"How can I not worry about you!? You're the idiot, idiot!"
Luffy laughed raspily and grabbed Nami's hand.
"You know...Nami...I have question...to ask you...once...talk better..."
"Sure! Of course!"
Surprisingly quickly, the boys came back up with a scared and worried Chopper who ran over to Luffy.
"YOU IDIOT! WHY DIDN'T YOU STAY AT THE CAMP!? Holy crap...how the hell am I supposed to treat this? YOU KNOW, YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN JUST FINE IF YOU RESTED A COUPLE DAYS! Maybe if I..."
Once Chopper began to treat him, Nami left with the boys. Once she got out of Luffy's line of sight, she began to cry.
"Nami-San-Sama?"
"Arlen...Arsen...I am so lucky to be a Strawhat!" She said through her sobs. The boys looked at her happily and patted her on the head.
"Strawhat-San-Sama is really an awesome guy...Thank you for helping us..."
"He's just so...reckless...what if Chopper can't treat him?! What if...What if his wounds are just too severe?!"
"He'll be fine! I'm sure!"
Nami hugged them both and they walked to the others, and Nami told the entire story to the others, their eyes growing bigger the longer she told it.
And...THAT'S the end of the "Rehabilitation of the Animal-Warriors!" *passes out from exhaustion* Doctor! I think I overstrained myself! Doctor? (Oh yeah, Chopper's treating mister badass idiot right now...Oh well...
I hope that the final battle was fulfilling. And, for any uncertainty, yes, I made up Robin's "spin" attack, Franky's "Triple Gun Flash," and, of course, De Ol' Red Hawk Bazooka...
We are now entering the, "Perhaps 2 more chapters and an epilogue.." so enjoy the story while it lasts, and spread the word about the fic if you think it's notable! (Only if you WANT to...) :P