I was beginning to realize that my first night out as a hero might also be my last night out. Obviously I had to have some sort of screw loose to be standing against the most dangerous cape in the Bay, but I also wasn't going to let him kill kids. Unfortunately that justification had done little to actually protect me from Lung's wrath.

I had hit hard and I had hit fast, but no matter how many bugs I sent at him, the man (now more dragon than man) would just not stay down. I had gotten a lucky hit in with my mace, but that had just pissed him off even more. There were now various wounds flickering with fire all throughout his body, and the area of the Docks that we had been exchanging blows at was now completely on fire.

I was doing my best to ignore the sweltering heat, even as it felt as though I was being cooked alive in an inferno. My costume was pretty durable and offered a bit of protection, but spider silk just wasn't built for withstanding the temperatures that the dragon cape was producing.

Damn it, I wanted to stop a mugger, maybe bust a Merchant deal. I definitely hadn't wanted my debut to be fighting Lung of all people. And now I was going to die. At least I probably was able to stop him from killing those kids he was targeting. One good thing before my miserable life came to an end. I suppose if I was sorry about anything it was the fact that my dad was going to be driven to utter despair by my death.

"'ILL 'OU!"

Yep that was one pissed off dragon. I decided not to respond as I desperately threw every bug in my arsenal at him. Unfortunately, it seemed that he was just healing too fast to really be taking damage. He had at least doubled in size since our encounter started, and I was pretty sure that his flames were getting even hotter. Which, again, was not ideal. I might be cooked before he got to me and snapped my neck. While I had been running all this time, I was swiftly running out of places to run to, thank god my stamina had increased due to my morning jogs, but that didn't seem to be helping with the burning in my lungs.

I was debating trying to smash into one of the burning buildings to get away from the dragon cape when a voice rang out across our impromptu battlefield.

"What the… is that you Momo!"

Lung and I actually startled to a halt as we stared in the direction of the voice. There was a guy there that had definitely not been there before. He didn't look much older than me, sporting dark hair, tan skin, and a rather dull face that had a scar on his cheek, but his outfit seemed ridiculous. He was wearing shaggy jean shorts, sandals, and a red vest shirt that was open showing off a meaner looking x like scar and a hell of a six pack. The ensemble was all tied together with a straw hat placed on his head and a black overcoat that was somehow hanging on his shoulders. He also wasn't wearing a mask.

"WHA'?"

Apparently he wasn't with Lung either, because the dragon cape had a look of utter befuddlement on his monstrous looking face. I used that opportunity to swarm more bees at him.

Lung let out a roar of pain and anger and began to turn toward me, but he was stopped as the strange boy once more called out.

"Oi Momo, what happened!? We were partying after Kaido and then we fell asleep and now you're burning down some random place! Why!?" he questioned as though Lung was this Momo guy.

I decided to stop this idiot from getting killed. Me and my bleeding heart.

"That's not whoever the hell Momo is! This guy is Lung and he's gonna kill you if you don't get away from here!" I screamed at the oblivious idiot.

He took my warning in with a tilt of the head and a crossing of his arms. I instantly regretted it as Lung's attention turned back to me and he seemed to swell in size again. I realized then that he had actually started to shrink, but as soon as his attention was once more on me he was registering a threat again. Damn it.

"Huh, are you the one hitting him with bees?" he asked curiously.

What the hell was this guy's problem!? Was he trying to burn to death with me!? Why wasn't he running!? Obviously he was a cape of some kind if he just appeared like that, but why didn't he just teleport away from here if that was his power!? As I was opening my mouth to retort (somehow even Lung seemed struck speechless by the boy's stupidity) he just kept plowing on.

"That's so cool! How many can you use? Why are you wearing a mask? Are you wanted in Wano or something? Oh yeah, Lang guy!" he was firing one question after another, leaving me no time to answer.

The two of us were thoroughly put on pause in our death match at the sheer absurdity. Lung even seemed to be contemplating listening to the now serious looking straw hat boy. Apparently this was my life now, at least I was able to enjoy the crazy before I was burnt to a crisp.

"Do you poop?"

I choked on nothing as the boy asked that question to the most dangerous cape in the Bay. I felt my entire body go rigid in fear as I slowly turned toward the now thoroughly transformed Lung. For an eternal moment there was no sound, just the dragon's eyes blown wide in surprise and the crackling of the flames all around us.

"'ill 'ou…."

There was only the beginnings of a murmur at first, but judging by the rapidly increasing fury in his every feature, Lung was about to stop at nothing to kill that boy. Damn it, how was I supposed to rescue him and not die at the same time. I was utterly and completely done with tonight. Everything was hot, my hair was a matted mess, my glasses were fogging in my mask, and I ached in places I didn't even know I had.

Now because of this stupid straw hat boy I was about to be incinerated.

"I' 'ILL 'OU!"

Lung's roar rattled the entirety of the area around us and his rage spiked the inferno hotter and I felt most of the last of my bugs completely die off. I had a few left, but it wasn't something I'd be able to bring him down with. It looked like this was the end of the line.

I could only watch in horrid fascination as sickening cracks began to echo throughout the area, before a gory mess of wings erupted from Lung's back. I could only watch on in fascination as little bits of viscera clung to them and his form seemed to lose even more of its humanity.

It came as absolutely no surprise that the last thing I saw was white hot flames rushing towards me. I closed my eyes and hoped it would be over fast. However, after a moment of nothing happening and a tremendous crash, I dared to take a peek. I was immediately thankful for my mask because my jaw would have been on the floor otherwise.

Standing in front of me was the boy from nowhere with his arm outstretched. When I say outstretched, I meant that it was literally stretched from in front of me to where Lung had been, wisps of fire petering out. Yes, had. Now he was crumpled against a burning building, looking as dazed as I was feeling.

I noticed with a feeling of detachment as the boy's fist retracted from where Lung had been before snapping back to a normal sized arm. He turned to me and offered a beaming smile that seemed to light up the entire area. For some reason I felt my cheeks burn at the attention he was giving me, even if he couldn't see my face. I suppose tonight had to have a few perks after all.

"Shishishi! Don't worry Bug Girl! This guy's definitely not as strong as Kaido!"

He delivered that line as though I had any idea what he was talking about. If there was someone who was stronger than Lung then I had no intention of ever meeting him. However, the moment of respite was interrupted as Lung exploded from the hole he had made in the building, then proceeded to ignore the entire thing as it crumbled around him.

I winced in sympathy at whoever owned that warehouse. While it was true that the Docks were rather destitute compared to the rest of the city, nobody really liked it when their building crumbled from a raging dragon. Hopefully they had good insurance.

I was also pretty sure that he had also increased in size again. I had a feeling that if he got much bigger there might not be a Docks by this time tomorrow. I glanced over at the straw hat boy, but he was merely looking contemplatively at the picture of rage beginning to stalk forward. I guess we should be thankful that the wings that he grew didn't look as though they could support his weight in the air…yet.

"We…really need to run away. The angrier he gets, the stronger he gets, and he can regenerate from any type of damage done to him," I tried to explain.

Straw hat boy nodded in understanding at my comment. Apparently he agreed with something that I had said, but it sure didn't look as though he was going to run for the hills with me.

"Right! So he's got a Devil Fruit like Sabo! Guess I should hit him a bit harder then!" he said emphatically.

What the hell!? He knocked Lung ass over tea kettle and that wasn't even as hard as he could hit? Where had this cape been my entire life!? Then something he said registered to me.

"Wait what's a Devil's-"

However, it looked like I wasn't going to complete my question because Lung chose that exact moment to let out a devastating roar, before he began charging like a mad bull towards us.

I'll admit that I might have, possibly, let out a squeak of fright as a giant dragon began charging towards us, but the crazy boy merely let out his weird laugh again.

"Shishishi! Don't worry about it Bug Girl! I'll stop this guy from hurting you!" he shouted.

With that declared he began chagrin right back at the raging dragon. Well then, it looked as though he had gotten a lucky shot in, but now Lung was prepared for him and we were both going to die. I doubted whether it mattered that he could hit harder than he already had. Wonderful. Did his fists just blacken as he was running forward? What.

"Gum-Gum…"

And now he's yelling something like he's an old school anime protagonist. Whatever, I'll just enjoy what happened next I suppose. He either wins or he doesn't. If I had been in a better state of mind, and if it wouldn't leave me wracked with guilt I might have considered running away right now.

"...Gatling!"

"'IE!"

I'm not entirely sure what happened next. One moment the two capes were charging at each other. The next the boy's arms seemed to blur and multiply. Then it sounded as if a cannon went off that echoed throughout the entirety of the Docks, but really probably only sounded so loud at ground zero.

The next thing I saw was Lung once again flying through the air and smashing into another building. This time the force was enough to have the entire thing cave in on him almost immediately and I felt my heart leap into my throat.

While Lung had definitely been aiming for the kill I sure as hell wasn't! I made a mad scramble of bugs that descended on the crumbled building and I didn't dare breathe for a second until I somewhat felt a body beneath the rubble. To my astonishment, some of the rubble actually shifted and the dragon stumbled out of the debris. I held my breath ready to begin attacking with my meager bugs once again, but I rapidly realized that Lung was…shrinking.

We all stood for a moment, me holding my breath in hope, straw hat boy looking satisfied, with his arms once again crossed, and Lung rapidly losing mass and once more becoming a man. Finally he finished and a rather buff Asian man stood defiantly looking at us.

He was covered in bruises and his fire was trying to heal him but the mottling refused to retract. It looked as though a building had been dropped on him. Which to be fair it had, but that shouldn't have been able to do this much damage to him.

"Kill…"

He looked as though he had just enough strength to let out that pathetic whimper before his eyes rolled up into his head and like a puppet with his strings cut, he finally collapsed, falling face down.

The entire street was eerily quiet but for the steadily decreasing flames. It seemed that with their creator down for the count, they were slowly petering out. I supposed some of his rage was directed at making as strong an arena to fight as possible. Hopefully the rest would die down too before any other buildings got destroyed.

Shakily I let out the breath I had been holding, before sinking to my knees. It didn't feel real. My first night out and I had held my own against Lung until a crazy strong cape had come out of nowhere to smash his face in. I guess he was just an absurdly strong Brute type to go with his stretchiness.

With a flourish of his coat jacket the boy swung around and threw up a peace sign with a smile at me.

"He wasn't so tough after all!" he exclaimed.

I could only nod dumbly in gratitude at the boy. Holy shit, I had lived. I thought I was gonna die, but I pulled through. It might have been by the skin of my teeth, but I don't think I'd ever be able to repay the gratitude I felt at a boy whose name I didn't even know.

"Thank you," I almost whispered.

I guess that was at least a little start, small as it was. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off I wanted to crawl inside myself rather than socialize, but I had a feeling that the boy wouldn't let me just walk away into the darkness.

"Yeah, thank you."

I flinched at the unexpected voice before whirling around and scrambling to my feet, ready to call forth as many bugs as I had left, only to see that three monstrous dogs had descended onto the street without my noticing. The dogs didn't even look like dogs, more like a Frankenstein amalgamation of what a dog should be and then blown up to an absurd degree. I was so busy with the dogs that I almost missed the fact that there were people on the dogs.

There were four of them and they were clearly all capes, judging by the costumes that they were all sporting. One looked as though he had walked straight from a Renaissance fair, another sported dark motorcycle leathers and a helmet, with another wearing a skintight purple suit with a simple mask covering her eyes. The only exception looked as though she were in plain clothes with a plastic dog mask. Why even bother?

A gentle clearing of the throat and my attention went back to the purple clad girl who looked to be around my age.

"Like I said, thanks for the assist. If you hadn't shown up we would've been in a bit of a bind! It's not everyday that Lung is out for your blood after all!"

Her chipper attitude somewhat grated on my need to pull into myself, but I needed to put on a strong front if I wanted to be a cape in Brockton Bay. However, before I could say anything, what she had just said ran itself back in my head.

Wait. Lung had said he wanted to kill kids. What was in front of me right now? Kids.

I hate tonight.

The blonde girl let out a small laugh, apparently my suffering was funny to her. Flushing in anger, not that anyone could see (thank you mask), I opened my mouth to give her a piece of my mind. She beat me to the punch though, waving her hands in a vaguely soothing way.

"Hey, really, thanks, we won't forget that you did us a solid. Name's Tattletale, the Ren fair reject is Regent, strong silent type is Grue, and paper mache mask over there is Bitch. You got a name, Bug Girl, Straw Hat?"

I immediately felt flat footed, how the hell could I forget something as basic as a name!? However, before I could answer, Tattletale was waving her hand in front of her face desperately as straw hat boy had taken in a lungful of air and looked as if he had literally inflated.

"Woah, woah! No real names! Are you crazy!? Although I suppose if you can beat the hell outta Lung then you can go around without wearing a mask," she said

The boy deflated looking a little glum as he did so, but I was slightly grateful for it as it saved me the hassle of explaining that I didn't have a name yet.

"Huh, you are green huh, Bug Girl," she proclaimed in interest.

I flinched at that, as I stared wide eyed at the vulpine grin that had taken over Tattletale's face. How the hell had she known!? What was the point of feeling like I had dodged a bullet only to be slapped in the face anyway!? As I was having an existential crisis, one of the boys spoke up from where he was lounging far too casually on a monster dog.

"Don't worry about it too much, Dork. TT just likes to goad newbies, even if they can cave her face in," he explained.

Tattletale's face did some interesting emotional acrobatics that I was surprised to see even with the mask, before settling on scowling at Regent.

"Thank you, Regent, for that scintillating input," she bit out sarcastically.

She ignored him cheerfully flipping the bird as she turned back to the two of us, now with a much more serious stint in her expression.

"Seriously though you two, thanks for the favor, if it wasn't for you, we'd probably be dragon chow right about now, or there'd be even more collateral damage than there already was. If we can make it up-"

It was here that my so far silent companion decided to speak up.

"I want meat!"

Tattletale visibly stuttered for a moment as Regent burst out laughing on his dog, while the dog girl (I wasn't calling her Bitch if I could help it) looked mildly approving from the way she held herself. The only one I couldn't really get a read on was Grue.

"We can probably manage that right, Tattletale," Grue spoke up from his mount.

Well, his voice sounded pretty pleasant, even if it was a bit muffled from his helmet. At least they were all in agreement to reward us, although I had no idea what to ask for. Tattletale sighed and rubbed at her temples as she shot the straw hat boy an exasperated look.

"I'm not sure, I'm pretty sure he can eat all of our bodies weight here combined, including the dogs," she said.

Judging by the way Grue slowly hunched into himself, that was not what he wanted to hear. I also heard Regent begin struggling to breathe, he was laughing so hard, and the dog girl still looked fairly approving. All in all they made a fairly eclectic sort of group. This had definitely not been on my list of things happening when I decided to don the mask and go out caping. I'm not sure if this part of the night was good or bad, but it was better than earlier so I'd take it.

"So, uh, anything else we can help you with?" Tattletale asked gently, obviously hoping he'd have a different request.

"Help me find my crew!" the boy exclaimed immediately after.

Tattletale blinked at that, before a grin stole across her face once more.

"Well that sounds like something we should be able to help with no problem! I'm rather good at finding things if I do say so myself! How 'bout you, Bug Girl?"

I felt an irrational irritation at everyone calling me Bug Girl, but I forced it down, it was my fault for not picking out a name before heading out in the first place. At least I knew what I didn't want to be called now.

Tattletale held up her hands in a placating gesture at what I could only assume was my body language.

"Gotta call you something for now, we can hash out details later," she soothed.

I definitely wasn't happy with being read like a book, but I suppose that was just something I'd have to deal with. I gave an indistinct hum in consideration as I glanced over at my savior for the night, who was proceeding to pick his nose with his pinky.

Was this guy raised by mountain bandits or something? Where the hell did he pick up those habits? However, grossness aside, he did help me out of what was certainly going to be my death, so I should help him too… right?

"I think I'd also like you to help find-"

I hadn't even finished my sentence before I felt something on my shoulder. Baffled, I looked down to see that Straw Hat had placed his hand there. A glance up and he was looking at me with a pretty serious expression.

"Hey Bug Girl, you don't have to share your meat, just do what you want," he explained.

I slowly nodded at what he said (for some reason Bug Girl didn't bother me as much from him, maybe it's the way he said it?), even if I wasn't entirely sure I got it, before turning back to Tattletale. She was watching our interaction with undisguised interest, as though we held some great secret. Well if I wasn't helping out my savior I'd have to think a little more on it.

"I think I need more time to come to a decision after all," I stated as confidently as I could.

Tattletale gave a hum of acknowledgement before nodding over to the rest of her teammates. With a jolt I realized that the crackling of the flames had completely died out and the street was now eerily quiet. I suppose we had been hashing out details for longer than I thought. I should really try to go home and get some sleep. I hoped that my battered body would be up for school tomorrow, I was already beginning to feel like one giant bruise, not to mention the fact that my legs were feeling fairly numb after all the running I did. I guess I'd have to find some way to call in the fact that me and Straw Hat had caught Lung.

I let out a yelp of surprise when a flip phone came flying towards my head, but I had enough dexterity to somehow catch it, which was somewhat amazing to the me from only a few months ago.

"I'd suggest getting your own burner phone for things like this, although from now on it's probably going to be significantly calmer. And hey, if you're ever feeling down, just remember, you took on Lung and survived!" Tattletale explained once I glanced at her questioningly.

I felt a small warmth spread throughout my chest. Yes, Straw Hat had helped with putting him down for good, but I had been able to finagle him to a low residential area and my hit and run tactics had been doing damage. Even if his regeneration was stronger than I expected. I'd have to read up more on the cape scene, I didn't want to be caught as off guard as I was again.

Tattletale was tilting her head towards the end of the street in an inquisitive way, but she snapped back to her standard grin when she noticed me looking. I also noticed that the Straw Hat boy was glancing in the direction Tattletale was. I had no idea why, until I began to hear the faint whine of a motor coming along the road.

"Whelp, it looks like our time is up, see ya later, Bug Girl, Straw Hat!"

With a dainty little wave and a command from the dog girl I hadn't heard, the three monster dogs were bounding towards the rooftops with their cape passengers. A few seconds later and they were out of my sight, just as the whine of an engine seemed to fill the whole street.

Eventually a sleek motorcycle was hurdling down the street that me and Straw Hat were on, I glanced at him, but he was once more looking bored and picking his nose. Whelp, it looked like I was gonna be on my own for my first hero interaction.

Because although I had never really heard it in person before, I had definitely seen the hero riding the motorcycle. I had even had branded underwear from him before, which I was never going to admit, ever.

Still I was a little relieved to see Armsmaster coming to a halt on his souped up motorcycle. His iconic halberd was slung over his back, while his beard looked neatly trimmed to follow the contours of his power armored helmet.

The sleek silvers and blues of his design made me feel incredibly jealous when I compared it to my own dark costume. This was a man who really looked as though he embodied the term "Hero." He was usually up there in the posters with the Triumvirate, and when it came to the local Protectorate, he was front and center.

He came to a sliding halt in front of us, taking a moment to look around and noticing the carnage that had come from me fighting Lung for so long, before lingering on the downed form of Lung. With a jolt I realized that I still had the phone that Tattletale had tossed me in my hand, and I awkwardly tried to put it in my messed up belt that I had been keeping my mace in.

Armsmaster on the other hand dismounted from his motorcycle and pulled his halberd in one smooth motion, looking as though he were the product of pure efficacy. Hopefully I'd be able to make others stand a bit straighter when I arrived at a scene one day as he was doing for me.

That was up until he pointed his halberd at us.

I stiffened in shock, but tried to relax when I noticed he didn't seem intent on running us through, it was just positioned better to fend us off.

"Hero or Villain?" he asked, tone clipped.

He had a smooth baritone, but it sounded slightly strained, as though he wasn't getting enough sleep, which I suppose was somewhat understandable in a city like Brockton Bay. I had to squash an instinctual need to snap at him, I knew my costume was too dark, but it was as light as I was going to get it for now.

"I'm a hero!" I exclaimed, maybe a tad too forcefully if the tightening of his grip was anything to go by.

However, he didn't do anything else as we both looked over at Straw Hat, who was now digging into his ear with his pinky before inspecting the results and flicking it away. When he noticed us staring at him, he whistled, badly.

"Well?"

Armsmaster curt question seemed to startle Straw Hat out of whatever he was doing, but he merely cocked his head to one side and crossed his arms to stare at Armsmaster intently. Oh crap, the last person he looked at like that was Lung, who was currently unconscious around thirty yards from us.

"I'm not a hero, because a hero has to share their meat with everyone," Straw Hat said in an entirely too calm voice as I inwardly panicked, before continuing, "I love heroes, but I want all the meat. So I can't be a hero!"

I stared in amazement at the human being in front of me, and a glance at Armsmaster showed that he had a complicated expression as he looked at Straw Hat. I had a feeling he was as in awe as I was at that weird answer. Apparently he ran on meat, good to know (although the amount that Tattletale said he could pack away seemed a bit unreal).

With a barely perceptible nod, Armsmaster lifted his halberd and relaxed considerably, causing Straw Hat to once again break out into a giant grin. Actually, I'm pretty sure his smile stretched a bit more than it should, but it wasn't unpleasant to look at, although Armsmaster seemed slightly put off by it.

"Acceptable," he stated with a no nonsense tone, "are you the two that were able to detain Lung?"

Straw Hat once more gave a peace sign, well if he took the credit it wouldn't be so bad.

"Yeah, that Lang guy went down way easier than Kaido, Halbeard."

I gaped, thankful once again that no one could see me because of my mask, in astonishment at Straw Hat as Halbeard, I mean Armsmaster's powered glove creaked on his halberd.

"Please do not call me that. I would like to hear your reports for how this situation came about, but first let me detain the Villain," he said.

His cadence was clipped and quick, almost as though he was trying to get through the conversation as quickly as possible, but for now I'd indulge him. I gave a small nod, while Straw Hat merely raised an eyebrow quizzically. With a deft twist of his wrist, Armsmaster sent forth a tranquilizer dart that impacted Lung from here.

"Now that the suspect is caught, may I have your names?"

I sighed, as I was once more slapped in the face with the fact that I had no name, that would have to be rectified as quickly as I could.

"Sorry, I don't have one yet, tonight was actually my first night out," I explained.

For a second Armsmaster stared, but then he gave a curt nod, it was almost as if he had followed a direction there? I'd dwell on it later. Then Armsmaster turned to Straw Hat and once more asked for his name. With a jolt of foreboding I remember what Tattletale had said earlier, no real names. Surely he wouldn't be that stupid.

Who am I kidding, he wasn't even wearing a mask.

Straw Hat inhaled deeply before thrusting his fists into the sky.

"My name is Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!"

Hello all, this is a new fic that I've just written. I'm trying a bit of a different tack and posting on SPacebattles, AO3, and FFN, so it's whatever site you enjoy most! However, Spacebattles is getting the first editions of the chapters so far, because I'm playing around with the posting system there, it's also where'd I'd be more likely to engage in discourse at the moment!

The chapter has just been glanced over so if you see any egregious mistakes let me know! If you're feeling kind leave a fav, follow or review! I'll definitely read it all, this is my first forray into these two fandoms as a writer so anything is helpful! Until next time!