Chapter 11

Story Start: Arlong Park

Let me tell you something, flying in the air when you didn't have wings or any kind of flight tech to hold you up was uncanny. Even three months after I had first tried to use a bodysuit to fly I was still fighting the urge to grab anything around me for support. For the first month, I actually made wings on my back that I could see when turning my head just to give me reasurrance (fake reassurance, bur reassurance all the same) that I wouldn't suddenly start plummeting out of the sky. Being good and pissed off at a bunch of Fishmen that I was flying towards to deliver a smack down to was a pretty good distraction from that unease.

I was flying a bare foot over the tallest waves as I shot towards the sea entrance to Arlong Park. Once I got there, I visually double checked that there were no fishmen in the outer section before I sent invisilet down into the water. Once I had a twenty foot long sheet, I began thickening it, filling up the outer section dimensions before sending it out to sea. With that out of the way, I floated up to look over the sea gate. The moment I got the signal that the others were ready, I was going to force open the sea gates and block off the interior section as well. I would have started to do so already but my Observation Haki told me that there were fishmen in the water and I didn't want to take the chance that they could sense the cloth forming through the currents (small as they would be) that pushing the water out of the way would generate.

The start of the show came when the doors of the land entrance swung open and Nami came walking through. Arlong perked up in his beach chair like throne and said "Ah, Nami! That was a long trip, it was a productive one I hope?"

"Very productive." Nami said as she walked towards Arlong, patting the bag she carried before continuing "I ran into quite the large number of suckers."

Arlong nodded and said "Good, good!" He then raised his voice and called out "Hey everyone, come on out, Nami's back, it's time to celebrate!"

The water erupted as fishmen burst out cheering for Nami, and a few came out of the building as well. As Nami grinned at them all, I began sending my invisilet covered tape through the gap in between the sea gates and growing it forward. Nami traded greetings with the fishmen before she said she had to go put her things away, promising to be back down soon. I 'watched' through my Observation Haki as she entered the tower. A few minutes later, she went out the back and over the wall, a small life sign no bigger than her hand on her shoulder.

The instant she was over the wall, Arlong was slammed through his chair into the ground by an invisible force. Kuroobi got a rather similar treatment as his head snapped to the side, the ray fishman blasted off his feet and into the outer wall cratering it. Chew got an iron pellet to the eye and he let out a roar of surprised pain. An angler fish suddenly folded over, a tonfa buried into his gut.

As Hatchan and the others stared in stunned surprise, several figures appeared out of thin air, pulling cloacks off and stuffing them into pockets revealing the Straw Hats. Zoro was tying his bandanna on while giving Hatchan a bloodthirsty grin. Usopp was perched on the outer wall by the gates, sling shot in hand and a rather evil looking grin of his own on his face hiding the terror that shone in my observation haki. I withdrew the invisible part of my invisilet body suit, arms crossed as I stood on top of the sea gate.

The next instant, Luffy leapt away from Arlong as he tried to grab the rubber man. Arlong's eyes were bloodshot as he shot up to his feet and growled out "Who the hell do you people think you are, attacking superior fishmen like that?!"

Luffy's grin was somehow even more dangerous than Zoro's as he said "Shishishi, we're the ones who are going to kick your scaly asses!" Before Arlong, or anyone else for that matter, could say something in response to that, Luffy grabbed Arlong by the throat and actually tossed him up into the air before slamming a Gomu Rifle into him to throw him even higher up.

As Luffy started juggling the saw tooth shark fishman in the air, Zoro drew his sword, pointing it at Hatchan as he said "You have ten seconds to draw those blades before I start amputating."

Hatchan blinked before he gained a furious glare and began drawing his six swords as he said "I won't let you get away with hurting my crewmates!"

Sanji hadn't even bothered speaking, he had just shot forwards towards Kuroobi and the pair were already engaged in furious martial arts combat.

Usopp meanwhile gave a quick whistle and shouted out "Yo puffy lips! Eat this!" The next moment, I had to wince when an explosive round nailed the smelt whiting fishman in the gonads. Chew let out a wheeze of pain but a moment later he was tearing off towards Usopp with murder in his eyes. Usopp's eyes bugged out and then an instant later I saw a dust trail leading away from Arlong Park, Chew following it.

"Well that's one way to get his attention." I said with a sweat drop before I leapt forward off the sea gate and joined Gin in taking out the non officer fishmen.

The fishman I landed by had a large neck that tapered off over a few feet into a thinner head with puffer lips, a line of fins going up the neck to the top of his head like a mohawk. The guy had his head straightened up so that way he could see over his crewmates to watch the fights going on at the building entrance. He paid for that lack of awareness of his suroundings when a streamer of cloth wrapped the entirety of his neck and I kicked out his right knee, yanking down on the streamer at the same time. The guy let out a startled shout before his head cratered the pavement. A stomp on his narrow head with my haki enfused shoe ensured he was truly down and out.

The startled shout had several of the other fishmen spin around in surprise and I grinned as I said "Alright lads, I'm going to introduce you to a game called Marco Polo." With that, I made a cloth construct of Bulkhead from Transformers Prime, the bulky green figure standing at twice my height. As I floated back up into the air, blue eyes snapped open and the hands became studded maces. I made the construct grin and as the maces blackened with armament haki Bulkhead slammed his right mace into the closest standing fishman and called out "MARCO!" A few seconds later, he slammed his left mace into another fishman and called out "You're supposed to say 'POLO!' you scale faced scallywags!"

Keeping most of my Observation Haki on my opponets so that way I could puppet Bulkhead without looking, I took another look around to see how the rest of the attack was going. Gin was currently weaving through the mooks on the other side of the group, cannonball tonfa claiming tooth and rib alike as he used his new Observation Haki to avoid any attacks the fishmen made on him (To their vocal disbelief that an East Blue human seemed to know the technique) Zoro had just pulled a Mihawk and blasted Hatchan's blades away from his torso before slicing him from hip to shoulder. Sanji was doing a Rock Lee impression, slamming a kick into Kuroobi's jaw sending him skyward and leaping up after him to lay down a blistering barrage of kicks into his spine. And Luffy-

I did a doubletake as an airborne Luffy slammed an arms pinned Arlong not into, but THROUGH the shark on the roof of Arlong Park, right next to the flag pole, the enemy captain blasting through all five levels of the building before a few moments later bursting through the first level wall, a scowling Luffy slamming a Gomu Rifle into his gut and causing him to smash apart the pillar Arlong's back hit. Before he could even hit the ground Luffy clamped an arm around his ankle and pulled him back into the building. Yikes, Luffy was pissed.

I wasn't the only one to see that either. One of the fishmen that my Bulkhead construct or Gin hadn't reached yet gave a nervous swallow and said "Not even Arlong can beat these humans..."

The fishman next to him couldn't take it and said "We don't stand a chance! We've gotta get out of here!" He dove for the water only to faceplant on the invisilet a few inches in. All of the still standing fishman paused from their panicking and another asked with wide eyes "D-don't tell me one of the humans has a barrier devil fruit of some kind?!"

"DING DING DING! SOMEONE GET THAT MAN A COOKIE!" I shouted pointing at that fishman.

"I've got a cookie right here!" my Bulkhead construct called out with a grin before slamming its right mace into the fishman.

That caused the still standing fishmen to panic and a group of five tried to run for the gate placed on the land. I made a lasso of cloth and swung it over my head a few times before launching it. As the loop of cloth flew towards them, it expanded to encompass all of them. One of the fishman happened to look back in time to see it and he yelped in fear as he dove away from the group just before it dropped down around the other four and rapidly tightened slamming the four fishmen together before I yanked back on the lasso pulling them through the air screaming into the down swinging mace of my construct.

The last fishman sprung up to his feet and continued bolting for the gate. I was about to grab him with another streamer when he crossed the gate and suddenly got two Dao sword hilts to the head, causing him to stumble before the two daos came down and sliced into the back of his knees. The fishman fell with a shout of pain only to fall silent as Johhny and Yosaku slammed the back of their blades into the back of his head and I felt the fishman lose consciousness in my Observation Haki.

I gave the pair of bounty hunters a nod then turned my attention on the last few remaining standing fishmen and sent Bulkhead after the two grouped together before I shot forward at the third. The fishman saw me coming and a look of desperate hope appeared in his eyes as I got closer and he swung his cutlass at me. That hope died a rather fast death when I sidestepped his down swing and my Haki coated knife stabbed into his right shoulder making the arm useless. The fishman let out a yell of pain as I tore the blade out, spinning down low to slice into the back of his knees before I came back up and slammed my knife through the back of his left shoulder. The fishman screamed like the damned as he fell to the floor until I gave him the dubious mercy of a haki'd kick to the back of the head knocking him out.

"I was wondering if you'd step in yourself or leave it all to your puppet." Gin said, right tonfa resting on his shoulder, both cannon balls dripping with blood.

"Believe it or not, this is only my third life and death fight." I stated, completely unashamed that I had 'played it safe'.

Gin blinked, considered that fact and how well I had done in the fight against his former crewmates, and then said "Huh, your Observation and Armament Haki are a better combat aid than I first thought."

I nodded at that only to flinch as the main building of Arlong Park collapsed in on itself causing Gin and I to spin around and watch with wide eyes. The pure rage we could feel from our Captain with our Observation Haki made both of us shudder. And I had thought Luffy was angry before.

"Our Captain is really a scary guy when he is angry isn't he?" Gin said with a nervous smile.

"Yeah." I said, staring at the destruction.

"He found my map room." Nami said solemnly and the pair of us flinched a second time as Nami removed her invisibility cloak near us, the den den mushi she retrieved sitting on her shoulder. There were tears in her eyes as she stared at the destruction of her prison but there was a smile on her face as well as she continued "I felt the pair in there before Luffy's rage spiked."

"Yeah, that would do it." I muttered to myself.

It was at that point Luffy exploded out of the debris. His crew (the only ones still actually conscious in Arlong Park) watched as he pulled Arlong out of the rubble as well then dragged the fishman to them by his bent saw nose. Blood was trailing from out of the enemy Captain's mouth, his eyes were vacant, and more than one limb folded wrong when it pressed against a piece of debris.

Luffy dragged Arlong towards me, Gin, and Nami, Zorro and Sanji moving to walk by his side. Luffy dropped Arlong five feet away then continued forward and wrapped Nami in a hug.

"It's over." Luffy said softly and Nami let out a sob before breaking down. I traded a look with Zoro and Sanji before we looked to the land entrance where Johnny and Yosaku were looking in. Usopp was between them, a blue skinned foot held in the sniper's hand and a crispy opponent laying in the dirt behind him, proof that he had taken out a fishman opponent of his own.

Looking back to Luffy, I said "No it's not, not yet." As the others looked at me, (Nami's eyes already red as she looked up from where she had buried her head in Luffy's chest) I sent out streamers to bind the unconscious fishmen even as I pulled out my phone. Bringing up the map provided by one of the challenges, I said "Gin, Johnny, Yosaku, let's hunt."

"Aye." Gin said with an eager grin. As he began walking over to the bounty hunter duo, I gave a quick look to sea and dropped the cloak on Yamato and the Marine Cruiser. By the time we had decided on which patrolling fishman we would start with Yamato and the cruiser were a hundred feet out with a cloth bridge connected to the outside ledge of Arlong Park.

Scene Change: An Hour And A Half Later

Being able to fly on a 'magic carpet' made getting to our targets quickly relatively easy. And by now we had a routine. Find the patroling fishmen, come up from behind wearing our Invisibility Cloaks. Wrap the torso(s) of the fishmen in invisilet then yank them back to us. Knock them unconscious with weapon to the back of the head. If there was just one, it was Gin's. If there were two, Johnny and Yosaku tag teamed the second. If there were three (which had happened twice before) each one of the trio got a fishman. Floating on a second, much larger carpet of invisible cloth in the air, a large pile of goose egged fishmen lay in a pile, each one of them thoroughly bound and gagged, and each one of them a testament of how effective our ambushes had been.

There was one last fishman pair to jump, this one a puffer fish and catfish. Staring down at them from our invisible platform in the air, I looked to the trio and asked quietly "Guys, do you mind if I handle these last ones by myself?"

"Go right ahead big bro." Johnny said, Yosaku nodding his agreement while Gin simply shrugged his lack of disagreement.

Nodding, I held my right arm down at an angle. Then feeling a bit childish, I folded my ring and middle fingers inwards leaving pointer and pinky out in a hand gesture anyone from my generation would recognize. Two threads shot out of my extended fingers and connected with the backs of the fishmen's shirts. The next moment, I lifted them up in the air and before they could do more then give the start of startled shouts rung their bells off of each other. (And thanks to anime physics, we actually heard a bell ring from the impacts.)

"Oooh!" Johnny and Yosaku said, eyes squinted and flinching back a little in the classic reaction to seeing someone get a large hit to the head. Gin meanwhile nodded in approval as I jerked the now limp fishmen up to us, wrapping them as we went.

As I was placing them on the other carpet with the rest, my phone gave a quiet set of pings. Pulling it out, I slid the button that had appeared across the screen and brought the phone up to my ear and said "Matt here."

"Matt, we just got off the line with a Marine Commander Elderberry." Nami stated, the sound of a party coming through showing that at least the population of Cocoyashi Village knew that the Arlong Pirates had fallen. A kid's voice said something I didn't quite catch and Nami told him she'd be just a minute before she continued "Some of the people from another village had managed to escape the island before we arrived and one Commodore Pudding from Marine Branch 77 is already on his way. He'll be coming in from the south west. If you guys have finished rounding up the patroling fishmen, I think it might be a good idea for you to get back to Arlong Park and cloak Yamato again before they get here."

"Your timing is impeccable Nami, I just knocked out the last two. We're heading back to Arlong Park now." I said, already pointing our carpets in the right direction. My hunting partners braced themselves and we began zipping through the sky as I continued "And I agree, we should definitely cloak Yamato, if for nothing else then to remove the possibility of the Marines finding our Jolly Roger flying ship."

"Yeah, wouldn't want the Marines to get any dumb ideas about brininging in ALL of the pirates on the island." Nami said dryly. A moment later, she hung up and I set the number of the former Arlong Pirate snail she had called from as SHS 2. Then since I had my phone out already, I went to my challenges app.

Challenge: You Can Run, But You Can't Hide: The main fighting's done, now's time for the mop up. Take Gin, Johnny, and Yosaku with you around the island and capture the remaining members of the Arlong Pirates. Reward: Copper Metal Coat. Challenge Complete.

I tapped the Recieve Reward button and a moment later a square yard of shimmering cloth appeared in front of me. Grabbing it out of the air, I felt the metalic texture and gave it a few folding tests before turning it into the blade of a sword. When I drew the pad of my finger along the edge and came back with a thin line that bled, I grinned and said "Oh yeah, I can work with this."

Time Skip: Half An Hour Later

Yamato was cloaked. Better yet, she was hanging a mile up in the sky over Nami and her sister Nojiko's tangerine orchard so that way no one could see a void in the water where she rested. After making sure the Going Merry and the Marlin were alright, (I had felt both vessels get a bit anxious via Observation Haki when they felt Yamato lifting up out of the water) I grabbed SHS 1 from Merry's kitchen and handed the little guy over to Gin before dropping him and the bounty hunter duo off in Cocoyashi Village to join the rest of the Straw Hats in the party the villagers were throwing (and which showed no signs of stopping any time soon).

As the trio went their separate ways, I checked in on our Marine and Fishman Prisoners that Cocoyashi's sheriff Genzo was keeping an eye on. The Marines had been rolled off the cruiser down a gangplank and along with the Arlong Pirates into the village while I had been fishman hunting, none of the locals bothering to be gentle with the Marines that had allowed their suffering to go on unnoticed for so long or the Fishman which had been the cause of said suffering. More than one prisoner had a rather dirty head from where they had been rolled into the ground on the way to the village. Once I was sure that there were no issues, I left the Fishman my hunting party had captured with Genzo then waded into the party tracking a certain person with my Observation Haki.

I found Nami with a blue haired woman I assumed to be her sister leaning against her side as they listened to Usopp telling the story of how he took out Chew. Tapping Nami's shoulder, I let her know that the last of the Arlong Pirates were with the rest of our prisoners and where I left Yamato. The flabbergasted look on Nojiko's face when she learned that the massive battleship construct was hanging in the air over her orchard was rather amusing. After Nami had given me a hug of thanks for rounding up the Arlong Pirate members that hadn't been at Arlong Park, I hung around just long enough to grab a bite to eat and a drink. Then I shot back up into the sky. Oh, don't get me wrong, the party looked great to be in, but I had inbound Marines that I wanted to locate before they arrived. If for nothing else then to guide them to the right part of Conomi Island.

Heading for the south west of the island, I made a carpet to sit on and brought out my spy glass and began sweeping the horizon. Just under forty minutes later, I spotted white squares near the water on my latest pass and when I brought the spy glass back to that area I saw a ship flying Marine colors. Collapsing the spy glass, I muttered "There you are."

My carpet shot forward and I was soon floating above the vessel. After I had taken a top down look, I lowered my platform to fly parallel with the ship. I scared the crap out of the lookout in the crows nest when I came level with him and his startled shout got everyone's attention. Coming level with the top deck, I gave a wave and said "Ho Marines! Permission to board?"

"Permission Granted!" A voice called and as I floated over the ship's railing a figure stepped through the crowd of Marines who had to be the commodore given while everyone else were in a simple shirt and pants, he had a full marine outfit complete with coat and finished off with a green scarf. He also had his hair in four folded pony tails and a folded goatee.

I raised an eyebrow at his appearance but shook my head as I stood up then hopped off of my carpet as I asked "Commodore Pudding I presume?"

"That is correct, and who might you be?" The Commodore asked as he came to stand in front of me.

"Call me Tac. I came out here to bring your ship straight to Cocoyashi village for prisoner transfer of the Arlong Pirates and the traitorous Marine Captain Nezumi and his men." I stated.

There was a tension in the air amongst the sailors at my words and Commodore Pudding rose an eyebrow and said "Traitorous you say? I'll agree the soon to be forrmer Captain Nezumi is certainly corrupt, as are his men for their willingness to consort with Pirates, but I do not believe treason was commited."

"Did he, or did he not betray the Law by allowing pirates to continue to enslave an entire island group, even acepting bribe money from them?" I asked with a matching eyebrow raise.

"Fair enough." Commodore Pudding said with a nod of his head. A moment later, he continued "You said you were here to bring us to the village. Am I to assume that you will be using the same ability that allowed you to meet us out here without a sailing vessel?"

I nodded and said "That's right. With your permission, I'd like to replace the wind as propulsion. I'll be able to get us to then around the island at a much faster speed."

Commodore Pudding studied me for a moment before he nodded and said "You have my permission. Alright marines! Let's see what this young man can do, furl those sails!"

"Yes Sir!" The marines shouted with a salute before they got to it. As they did so, I sent the carpet closer to the water and pressed it against the ship's hull. Pudding watched in interest as the sheet of cloth grew to encompass the entire hull (including the rudder) then I generated propellers at the stern and a bulbous bow just under the water line at the bow in order to reduce drag. A minute later, a Marine saluted and said "All sails furled Commodore!"

"Very Good!" the commodore said in approval before nodding to me.

I nodded back and called out "Attention all hands! We are about to accelerate to high speed! I reccomend everyone in the rigging to get down to the deck! Helmsman, my cloth's around the rudder so that I can steer, please step away from the helm!" As Marines scrambled to do as I advised, I began spinning the propellers. The ship that had been drifting forward without the sails began moving with purpose again and soon a wake began forming behind us. Once all of the marines were out of the rigging leaving only the marine in the crows nest above the decks, I kicked it up a notch and the ship began accelerating even further, bringing us up to fifty knots.

As the island ahead of us began rapidly approaching, Commodore Pudding lightly stroked his goatee as he said "This is certainly a rather useful application of your devil fruit young man. How long have you had it?"

I eyed him for a moment before I shrugged and said "Just over six months. Found it on an island after I accepted a six month survival challenge." I gained a vicous grin as I decided to throw in a little fib and said "And let me tell you, the mate that made the challenge was gobsmacked when he came back to the island and found a three story tall structure sitting on top of the trees on it."

That got a chuckle from the Commodore and more enthusiastic laughter from the nearby Marines. Getting his mirth under control, Pudding asked "I don't suppose you considered joining the Marines now that you have this ability? Being able to accelerate a vessel faster than the wind can push it would be incredibly useful."

I gave him a sheepish smile and said "Sorry, I'm afraid I'm spoken for already."

"Hm, a pity." Pudding said before he shrugged and dropped the subject.

Shortly after, we reached two miles from shore and I slowed down in order to turn us without throwing someone overboard. I then kicked us back up to speed, this time twenty knots as we zipped around the island. When we were half a mile out, I slowed us to a smooth coast and began retracting my cloth from the hull as I said "I think I'll allow more experienced hands bring your ship in."

"Probably a good call." Pudding said with a nod before he began barking out orders.

As I watched the Marines work, I could only hope that things went smoothly while they were here. Knowing Murphy though, I wasn't about to hold my breath on that front.

END

Author's Note: Standard Reminder that there is a bimonthly poll for a story I'll definitely work on over the next two months. Used to be two stories, but I'm going to start updating the stories that have been neglected in the previous polls.