Episode of Billy
Billy may not have been the brightest bird in the flock, but he was still intelligent. He understood the world around him in a way many of his fellow mutants back on the Islands-That-Floated did not. He understood that Gold-Alpha wanted to use them as weapons on Not-Fighters. He knew his new flock took offense to that. He knew his flock saved his life and the lives of a lot of people, and that he helped.
He did not understand why people gave each other short, arbitrary names, though, even if he learned them. Nor did he understand why some members of the flock could not swim. Deer-Is-Person tried to explain it, but the words did not make sense. He'd tried to explain person names as well, but Billy thought they were ridiculous. What if the flock met another person called Luffy? How would they differentiate between Other-Luffy and Alpha-Immune-To-Shock?
There were a few more things Billy did know, however; things he had picked up on since leaving the Islands-That-Floated. He knew Alpha-Immune-To-Shock and Alpha-Calls-Shock-From-Sky were mates. He knew Nose-Hits-Things-Far-Away acted as parent to Horn-Girl-Was-Ship despite them not being related. He knew Yellow-Female-Smells Sweet and Red-Girl-Makes-Feelings had a sibling bond but were not related. He knew Angry-Moss-Cuts-Things and Angry-Swirl-Gives-Food didn't like each other and constantly fought (which was like a sibling bond?). He knew Human-Is-Horn-Lizard learned from Angry-Moss and that Female-Smells-Sweet helps Angry-Swirl in the Food-Room. He knew Deer-Is-Person heals flockmates when they're hurt. He knew Person-Is-Metal cares for Floating-Nest and that Bones-Was-Person makes pretty sounds.
He knew his flock weren't necessarily the "good guys."
He also knew Angry-Swirl was looking for a mate. He knew Female-Blooms-Hands was interested in Angry-Moss. He knew Female-Smells-Sweet and Scary-Shock-Kin were Mates-but-not-mates somehow. He knew Human-Is-Lizard and Red-Girl had begun a mating dance just before everyone was beaten by Mean-Alpha-Parent and Bigger-Person-Is-Metal-With-Paws.
He knew his flock was scattered and he could not return until his wing was better after being frozen by Ice-Is-Person.
Billy had tried many times to leave the paw-shaped bubble he was trapped in by Bigger-Person-Is-Metal, but his wing was still injured. He could not fly with it in its current state.
Yellow-Female-Smells-Sweet had been injured, too. He hoped she was ok. She had lost her weapon in the explosion before they were separated.
An expanse of browns and tans stretched underneath Billy and he expected the bubble to continue on its way like it had over countless islands before. He was caught unawares when the bubble tipped, sending him directly downward.
Vivi was content with her life. The last few years had been Hell and every now and then she'd lie awake at the What If's for if Crocodile came back or if she'd gone with the Straw Hats, but she knew Alabasta was where she belonged. The Civil War was over, her country slowly repairing with the guidance of herself, her father, and Koza. The Sand Sand Clan had returned in full force, now her personal guards around the towns and cities, but the others teased her about wanting them to be Koza when he wasn't the one on duty.
That's why she needed times like this, when it was just her and Carue and a couple members of the Super Sonic Duck Squadron. Today it was Stomp and Eyelash accompanying them through the desert, a well-worn path beneath their feet.
Stomp was a thin, somewhat frail-looking duck with a backwards baseball cap. He always looked scared, but had shown in previous fights how much he cared for the kingdom.
"Wah!" Carue quacked below her, shaking her from her stupor. His wing pointed upward toward what looked like a falling star in the sky. "Wah?"
"You're right," Vivi agreed. "That's not normal. Think we should check it out?"
"Wah!" her mount nodded. They turned, heading off the beaten path to follow the thing in the sky. They watched as it grew closer to the ground ahead of them, thankful that they were far from any settlements where it could crash. Carue and his fellow ducks slowed to a walk as the mysterious object disappeared over a sand dune, carefully approaching the site while confused about the lack of noise caused by the impact.
Vivi was the first to see the outline of a giant paw, jumping off Carue and hurrying toward the creature they'd found. Carue squawked and followed, worried for her safety. The quartet stopped at the edge, cautious of getting any closer.
"Wah!" Stomp announced, one call telling them he should investigate for the safety of the princess and captain. Reluctantly, Vivi agreed, allowing the baseball-hat-wearing duck to approach the creature.
The first thing Stomp noted was that the creature was a duck, a Super Duck to be precise, or something very similar, which was weird because he'd been under the impression that Super Ducks were found only in Alabasta. The second thing was the saddle it wore, made for riding and connected to copper-lined talons on its feet. The final thing of note was the duck's tail, far longer than any other by half and mostly an orange color with green accents. Stomp had never seen anything of the sort. He drew closer carefully, leaning forward to poke it with his beak.
The moment he made contact, electricity spiked from the fallen duck, shocking the guard. Stomp went down with a "Squaaa!" instantly, unprepared, while the other sprung to its feet, flaring his peacock-like tail with static sparking between the feathers.
"Wah?" the duck asked. "Wah? Wah wah?"
"Wah!" Carue answered, taking a defensive position in front of Vivi. "Wah? Squa!"
The peacock-duck seemed to relax a little, him and Carue conversing while Eyelash offered the occasional "Megehepyubth!" as camels do. Carue's talons moved through the sand, relaying the most important parts of the conversation. His name was Billy. He was separated from his friends. His wing was injured.
It made Vivi very glad she'd taught Carue how to read and write.
Suddenly, Carue squawked in surprise while the peacock-duck danced happily, the captain quickly scratching a message into the sand.
HE SAYS HE'S A MEMBER OF THE STRAW HATS!
"Who know Luffy and the others?" Vivi asked, the duck answering with several firm nods, the ever-present dripping from his bill bobbing along. Another minute of discussion revealed that the Hero of the Marines and the Warlord Kuma had split up the pirate crew, leaving Billy where he was now.
"Any friend of theirs is a friend of mine," Vivi smiled. "Though I'll ask you to not shock my guards again. Come with us. We can help that wing of yours."
Far more relaxed than he had been when he landed, Billy helped the stunned duck onto the camel's back and followed Captain-Carue and Blue-Alpha-Woman back to their home.
"So Luffy and the others made it to Sabaody, but got split up there, right?"
Billy answered with a nod as the group walked toward the secret back gate of Alubarna so no one would question the addition of a new duck. Members of the Sand Sand bowed as the group entered, escorting Vivi, Carue, and Billy toward her room while Eyelash carried Stomp to the stables.
"I've got what you need," Vivi told the lost Gigafowl. "We can call the snail on your ship and find out what's going on there."
Billy tilted his head. Sure, he knew the snails on human crew's wrists were for communication, but he also knew they had a small range and that Blue-Alpha-Woman did not have one on her wrist. However, there were the bigger snails his flockmates would sometimes talk to. Were they not just talking to the snails?
Well, they could talk through the small snails, so the big snails probably did the same thing now that he thought about it. Huh.
Finally, they reached the princess' room, the woman allowing Billy in first. Any lingering fear he had was dispersed by the flag pinned to the right wall, the flag of his flock. Across from it was a bed large enough for five people with purple drapes. Various odds and ends littered the room, but Blue-Alpha-Woman made her way to the desk in the corner, picking up a snail colored blue. She dialed a number.
BADA-BADA-BADUP... BADA-BADA-BADUP... BADA-BADA-BADUP...
The ringing went of for a bit, Blue-Alpha-Woman growing a little concerned until it finally clicked.
"Hello?" a voice answered, the snail taking on a cleft chin and high cheekbones. "Who is this? How do you know this number?"
"To whom am I speaking?" Blue-Alpha-Woman responded. "Where are the owners of this snail?"
"They are out, currently. You are speaking to Handsome!"
"How long until they return? I'm a personal friend."
"How can I believe that?" Handsome questioned. "Perhaps you know their number, but can you give me the name of their chef? Or perhaps their bird?"
"Sanji and Billy," Vivi answered without hesitation, the snail's eyes widening. "Now can we drop all the guessing games?"
"Of course, of course!" Handsome nodded. "I am Handsome Duval, a friend of the Straw Hats. My boys and I are currently guarding their ship at the Sabaody Archipelago. Who are you?"
"My name is Vivi. The Straw Hats rescued me a while back. Where are they?"
"I'm afraid I don't quite know," Duval responded. "They handsomely set out to deal with some chaos nearly three days ago, but have not handsomely returned since." The snail broke into tears, but not those of Duval if the fangs were any indication.
"Mr. Handsome, sir!" a man's voice called from the distance. "She's crying again!"
"It's three o'clock," Duval said to the voice. "Get her some of the dumbbells and the dinosaur plushie."
"Right away, Mr. Handsome, sir!"
"What's going on?" Vivi asked. "Who's crying?"
"It's the ship," Duval answered. "Ever since the Straw Hats disappeared three days ago, she's been crying every hour on the hour." The snail teared up. "It's such a handsome showing of the bonds of family even through the unknown, it drives my handsome face to tears!"
"Mr. Duval," Vivi cut in. "I have with me a member of the Straw Hats in Alabasta, the bird Billy."
"Wah!" The gigafowl piped up at the sound of his name. "Wah-wah wah!"
"Alabasta?!" Duval yelled. "How? That's at the start of the Grand Line!"
"I don't know myself, but it is the result of a fight with 'The Tyrant' Kuma. His wing is too injured to fly with, so he'll need to stay here for a week or two so it can heal."
"Don't worry about that. The Rosy Life Riders can take care of the ship until the Straw Hats return. We owe it to good Master Sanji and the rest of them."
"What... exactly did Sanji do for you?" Vivi asked, trying to picture Sanji doing anything other than kicking, swooning, or cooking.
"Good Master Sanji gave me my new handsome face by kicking me repeatedly!"
"..." Vivi sighed. "Of course he did."
It took five days before Billy's wing healed enough to fly, which said a lot about both Aokiji's strength and Billy's healing ability. After that time, Billy was released from the veterinary and declared well enough to meet the Super Sonic Duck Squadron personally.
He already knew Carue, Eyelash, and Stomp (in passing), but had to be introduced to Ivan X - who was the biggest with a horned helmet, Cowboy - a lean duck with a cowboy hat, Bourbon Jr. - an angry-looking duck with a white hat and sunglasses, Centaur - a duck with a centurion's helmet, and Hikoichi - a perpetually-surprised duck with a conical straw hat.
"This is him," Carue introduced, using the language of animals to introduce the duck with the injured wing. "Billy here is a member of the Straw Hats. Be careful around him; he can control electricity."
"Really?" Ivan X questioned, the largest bird waddling over. "I doubt this hatchling could make more than a spark."
"Don't test it," Stomp tried to warn him. "It hurts."
"I'd like to see him try!"
"You want to see?" Billy asked, fanning his tail out. "I might not have been with them for long, but my flock are the Straw Hat Pirates. I helped take down Golden Lion Shiki." He held out his uninjured wing, the static charge moving between his feathers hidden by the the yellow color. "Go ahead. Try me."
"I will," Ivan X rumbled, his wing moving to meet the other duck's. The charge jumped, Billy flaring his natural ability. The charged electricity coursed through the larger fowl, his body not made to contain it. The other birds could've sworn they saw Ivan's skeleton through the shock before it ended, the crispy guard left dizzy on the floor of their roost. His groaning was hidden under the laughter of the other Super Ducks.
"Captain Carue!" a guard yelled, the door to the Super Sonic Duck Squad's roost banging open from the hurried force. "Captain Carue! Terrible news! Princess Vivi has been kidnapped by pirates!"
"WAH?!" every duck demanded. The shaking guard slowly offered a scrap of paper with human words scrawled across its surface.
"Dear Alabasta," Carue translated for his illiterate companions. "I do not regret to inform you that your beloved princess has been stolen from you. Should you want her back, be prepared to lose your best guards to piracy! Come to the dessert to the right of Nanohana tomorrow if you want her back. Only a Davy Back Fight will free your princess! Yours in villainy, The silver Fox." At the bottom was a squiggly drawing of a fox's face.
"Who?" Bourbon Jr. asked. "Never heard of him."
"I know he's a low-rank pirate with a big crew," Hikoichi offered. His eyes turned to Billy. "I'm the one that checks the bounties, by the way."
"Quantity over quality. Sounds like a pansy."
"What's the call, boss?" Cowboy asked, Carue scratching his response to the human as he responded.
"Everyone saddle up. We leave in the hour. We'll scope the pirates tonight and strike in the morning. We can let the humans handle whatever this Davy Back Fight is while we get the princess out."
"Take me along," Billy said, catching the other birds by surprise. "I might not have been a Straw Hat when they were here, but Vivi is an ally of my flock, so I will do my duty toward her. As my Alpha would say, she's Nakama. No one messes with our Nakama."
"Well said," Carue smiled. "You've still got your saddle. You're on this mission, too."
"Is that wise?" Centaur wondered. "I understand he claims to be a member of the Straw Hats, but we have no proof. He could be a spy."
"Excuse me?" Billy squawked.
"It's my call, Centaur," Carue responded. "He's coming, but if it'll make you feel better, you'll be his partner so you can keep an eye on him."
"Sir!" the horned-helmet-wearing duck saluted.
"Ow," Ivan X groaned from the floor, reminding the others of his state. "Did anyone get the name of that Sandoran Eel that shocked me?" His eyes blinked the fogginess away, reading the room as his mind kicked back in. "...What'd I miss?"
"Bourbon, report," Carue muttered into his headset, Cowboy at his side as they peered through special binoculars at the pirate ship in the distance.
"In position near the pirate ship," Bourbon replied over the squad's connected radio. "It's big. Way bigger than the Merry was."
"That's not a concern," Carue replied. "We are the fastest animals in the desert. A mere ship won't stop us, no matter how big."
"I've got a bad feeling about it," Billy panted, the group having needed to stop several times because he couldn't always keep up on the way. "As the local pirate, I can promise you there'll be some nasty surprises on that ship. I know ours has a few."
"14 different guards," Hikoichi supplied. "My vantage is real bad, though. There could be far more since it's taller then any potential vantage points. It's times like this when I wish we could fly."
"No kidding," Ivan rumbled. "Not even Eyelash can fly."
"He's a camel," Stomp reminded. "The don't fly normally."
"I can do that, flying, I mean," Billy commented, receiving surprised cries. "My wing should be strong enough to hold me now. I can't hide too well, though. Even at night."
"That's fine," Carue responded. "Stealth 101, act natural. Even if you're seen, I doubt they'll see you clear enough to recognize you since you aren't one of us. They'll forget by morning."
"Got it." Billy nodded to Centaur before rising into the air from beyond a sand dune. A couple guards on the shi[ moved to follow the bird's path with their eyes, but they quickly grew bored of the animal and went back to watching the well-worn pathways and cursing the fact they were on rotation so they couldn't party with the rest of the crew on deck. Billy circled higher, feeling a little more strain on his right wing but nothing so bad as to keep him down. The pirate ship slowly sunk below him as he normalized his presence, making the enemy forget about him.
"Billy, report," Carue ordered. "What do you see?"
"The deck is covered in pirates," the Straw Hat answered. "Over 50, easy. I could take maybe half of them with a good shock. More if we got them wet."
"This mission is only recon," the captain denied. "What else do you see? Can you identify the captain of the ship or any leaders? Or locate the princess?"
"I'm getting closer to look." The surprised calls in his ears went ignored as Billy slowly lowered, gliding down until he alighted on the mast. One guard that was in the crow's nest tried to shoo him away, but without his saddle, the man quickly concluded that Billy was just another wild Super Duck and left him be. The pirates below didn't seem to notice, over half of them with flushed cheeks and bottles of alcohol in their hands. Billy's eyes scanned the deck until he saw a man with a long, red nose and split hair sitting in what looked like a royal chair. A woman stood slightly behind him and to the right. She also had a pointed nose and was taller, wearing a beanie to help ward off some of the night's cold.
"Captain, I'm just saying," she said, "are you sure this is the best plan? The Davy Back Fights have always worked on pirates because the games are by pirates for pirates. Is the royal guard going to care?"
"Fehfefeh!" the man laughed. "You worry too much, Porche. Even if the royal army attacks instead of agreeing to the games, I can hit them with my special Mass Slow-Slow Beam and we can be on the horizon in a minute with those air boosters our new engineers made. Now, I believe it's time for you to take over guarding our guest. Hamberg has been down there all evening."
"Yes, Captain Foxy."
"Billy reporting," the duck whispered as the woman stepped into the ship's interior. "Captain spotted, named Foxy. Two named members including a woman named Porche and another called Hamberg. The woman just went in to take over guarding the princess. The captain mentioned some sort of slowing power."
"Good work, Billy," Carue praised. "Return to base for debriefing. We will break Vivi out tomorrow once their focus is divided."
"Sounds good," Billy nodded, taking to the air once more. "Ah, what's a debriefing?"
"Fehfehfeh!" 'Silver Fox' Foxy laughed as he and his crew of over 100 pirates watched part of the Alabastian Royal Army and the princess' personal guard array themselves in the desert field their ransom note said to. At the front of the group stood the king's advisers, Chaka the Jackal and Pell the Falcon, as well as Vivi's head guard Koza and Captain Carue. Mirroring them were the three heads of the Foxy Pirates, Foxy, Porche, and a gorilla-like man named Hamberg, as well as the chained princess. Vivi was bound with chains around her legs to keep her from walking and restraining her arms behind her back. A rag tied around her head as a gag kept her quiet.
"Hmpha! Hpmmp! Hmpa! Mphhh!"
"You fiend!" Chaka growled as he watched Vivi try to escape to no avail. "What is it you want from us?"
"Feh feh!" Foxy continued to laugh. "What I am looking for, what I am always looking for, is more hands and more skills for my crew. And see, we pirates have a code of honor with regards to what is called the Davy Back fights. Two crews play games, with members at stake. Those lost through the games are forced to pledge their allegiance to the winning crew, with their reputation among all pirates lost of they refuse to. You have to beat us in a Davy Back Fight to get your dear princess back!"
"That's not fair at all!" Koza yelled. "Even if we would go along with this, we don't know any of the rules, you ugly bastard!"
"H-He called me ugly," Foxy bemoaned, sulking between his commanders.
"I'm sure he didn't mean that!" Porche offered. "Hey you! Take that back right now!"
"Pupupu!" Hanberg giggled.
"Why?" Koza rebuffed. "You all attacked us!"
"So, are we not having a Davy Back Fight?" a Foxy Pirate with a wide mouth asked, having paused halfway through setting up an announcer's stand.
"Of course not!" Chaka yelled. "Royal army, free the princess!"
The army charged with a battle cry, the action shocking Foxy out of his depression. With a cry of fear, he aimed both of his hands at a pair of mirrors pulled out by his subordinates.
"Slow-Slow Beam: Reflect Max!"
"Devil Fruit!" Ivan X growled from the rest of Super Sonic Duck Squad's vantage point on a dune away from the battle. In the field below, the rippling waves (because they were not beams despite the name) washed over the army, slowing them to a crawl. Even Carue, the fastest animal in the kingdom bar none, was only moving at what any human would call a light jog. The rest of the Squadron and Billy hurried from their hiding spot, hoping to reach the pirates before they could pack up and ship out. Unfortunately, if there was one thing the Foxy Pirates were good at besides Davy Back Fights, it was running away. By the time the ducks and camel reached the shore, the Sexy Foxy was almost halfway to the horizon, an impressive feat for a mere 30 seconds.
"Shit!" Carue quacked, none of the humans save Pell understanding the language but getting the message. "I'm not fast enough to run on water yet."
"Men!" Chaka yelled. "Head to alubarna and ready the naval forces!"
"They'll be too slow," Pell said, even as most of the army took off toward the nearby city. The remainder of the army watched the man shrink slightly as his body shifted into his hybrid form. "I will go get her back."
"I'll go with you!" Billy quacked, spreading his wings with Pell. "I'm the only other one here who can fly and you need the back-up!"
"Then keep up!" Pell launched himself into the air like a fired cannonball, Billy watching in awe for only a second as the dust cloud cleared before taking to the air himself.
"What's the plan?!" Billy called as he caught up to the bird Zoan, the considerable distance between them and the pirate ship slowly shrinking.
"I do not know if I can trust you," Pell responded, glancing at Billy for only a moment before turning back to their destination, "but I don't have a choice right now and Carue seems to trust you. What can you do?"
"I'm Billy of the Straw Hat Pirates," the true bird offered. "An accident sent me here to Alabasta, but I can build electricity inside me and discharge it without hurting myself."
"Very well," Pell nodded, a pair of machine guns opening to rest at his sides. "I shall distract the crew on the deck since I am accustomed to dodging bullets. You will infiltrate their ship and get the princess. Understood?"
Billy saluted with a quack, banking to the right as Pell climbed higher into the clouds. The Gigafowl watched as the Zoan dived out of the sky, divebombing the ship with his weapons planting bullets in the deck and pirates in his way. The amount of skill between different crewmembers was staggering, as many pulling out weapons to fight as members that froze or started panicking.
Leaving the humans to themselves, Billy continued his arching course around the ship, word of the commotion above distracting the crew he could see through the lower windows. He found an abandoned room a minute later, alighting on the windowsill and squeezing aboard the Sexy Foxy.
The room he found was large, one wall almost completely hidden by a machine with large holes set into it. Closer inspection revealed that each hole hid a boxing glove. Not sure he wanted to know what the machine did, Billy snuck his way to the door and checked the hallway. the interior of the ship was dark, the floor only a thin board over crisscrossing beams, the dark below hiding whatever could be down there. Billy felt a shiver run up his spine before he reminded himself that Blue-Alpha-Female needed him.
Billy's nose wasn't the strongest in the animal kingdom, but it was still powerful enough to follow the smell of Blue-Alpha-Female, especially when the duck realized her scent was buried within the lingering smell of shampoo products. The Gigafowl trudged along, following the scent until he reached the door the strong scents were wafting from.
"Honestly," he heard a female voice say from within, recognizing Beanie-Point-Nose from the night before. Porche, they had called her. "Listen, I do respect my captain. Foxy is a clever man that has conquered countless pirate crews, but this plan just isn't his best."
"Hmph!" the muffled voice of Blue-Alpha-Female responded.
"Hey! don't struggle so much or I won't get all the soap out. Trust me, you don't want this stuff in your hair for longer than needed. Where was I? Oh, yeah, like, this plan would work fine if we demanded a ransom from your kingdom, but asking for men to serve him? Captain doesn't seem to get that not-pirates aren't going to follow unspoken pirate laws like the Davy Back Fight." The ship shook, muffled screaming coming from above. "Those idiots!" Beanie-Point-Nose raged. "They can't even keep the ship straight without someone up there pointing the way!"
Deciding he'd heard enough, the duck lifted his leg to kick the door down. the lock gave way under his copper talons, snapping to leave the door flapping on its hinges. He tried to make a dramatic entrance, but, while breaking the lock was a good start, the door swung back to smack him in the beak as he stepped into the room. Bully cursed under his breath, walking into the room without the fanfare he wanted.
The room was a too-bright pink, a four-poster bed on the right side and a full dressing room on the other. A club leaned against one of the bed's corners. The princess was still tied up, but now also tied to a chair leaning back over a sink. Porche stood over her, the pirate's hands lost in an afro of bubbles hiding Vivi's hair.
"Let her go!" Billy demanded, trying to ignore his blunder.
"A peacock?!" Beanie-Point-Nose gasped. Billy didn't wait for her surprise to wear off, running up to the woman with an electrically-charged tackle ready. Porche pulled her hands back, jumping away from the princess and the duck. Billy planted himself between the two women with a scowl on his face, Porche matching the expression as she gripped the handle of the club. "How cute. Maybe I'll ask Captain Foxy if I can keep you as a pet."
Billy growled at the thought, lowering his head and spreading his wings. Static danced along the feathers, causing Porche to hesitate. Her hands twisted, the club's bulk expanding before segmenting and rotating. The brown exterior flipped inward, past a green material, before the outside was covered in some red metal and the club condensed back into its original shape. Though an unspoken agreement, the two pirates charged one another, Billy's charged copper talons meeting Porche's apparently-insulated club.
"You're strong," Porche muttered through gritted teeth, her arms straining under the force of Billy's strike. If nothing else, Billy was thankful the hellish islands he was born into made sure he was stronger than the average bird. Even so, Porche's slender frame was very deceptive, hiding her disproportionate strength. One could not spend years on the Grand Line like she had and not at least have the strength hold back aggressive animals. Finding their attacks equal, the fighters broke apart before clashing again and again, the sound of metal clashing with each blow. Vivi struggled under the bindings keeping her in the make-up chair Porche was using on her, but she wasn't having much luck.
"Tch," Porche sniffed, no closer to beating her foe down. "Who are you? You aren't part of Alabasta's Duck Squad. We've had documents on them for weeks."
"I'm a Straw Hat," Billy answered, not that his opponent could understand.
"I guess it doesn't matter anyway," the woman shrugged. "Still, you interrupted my makeover time with the cute little princess. I only get her for an hour, you know! Captain Foxy has been cutting my makeup budget and time recently. How else am I supposed to test my products?"
Billy cocked his head, nod understanding all the disappointment in her tone. He backed up slowly until his tail touched the chair. Turning, he fanned his tail to make something of an electrical barrier between Vivi and Porche before using his talons to break one of the ropes holding the princess down. Her first act was to rip the gag out.
"Thanks, Billy!" Vivi smiled, pulling her other arm free now that she could get some leverage. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm the only duck that can fly, so Human-Is-Bird and I came to-" Billy squawked, Porche having hit his exposed tail with her club. Billy turned on instinct, his feet lashing out at the Foxy pirate. The force sent her across the room, hitting the wall on the other side.
Porche frowned as she gripped her club harder, using one arm to drag herself up the now-dented wall. Instead of attacking, she slid a panel away to reveal a big red button that said PANIC in white letters. She smacked it without preamble, an alarm blaring thought the whole ship.
"Sorry, little duckling!" Porche smirked, yelling over the sirens and blocking the doorway. "You and the princess aren't getting out that easy."
The duck turned his head to look at Vivi with one big eye, gesturing to the saddle on his back. Vivi got the message, jumping into the seat usually reserved for Nami as Billy pawed the floor (though he didn't have paws). With an angry CAW punctuated by the smell of ozone, he charged the female pirate. Porche wasn't quite confident enough to face down a charging thunder-bird without back-up. She dove out of the way as Billy neared, letting him and his passenger into the hallway.
A dozen pirates that had been sleeping in some of the rooms down the hallway stumbled out, blearily looking for the source of the alarm. Tired as they were, missing a large duck with a blue-haired woman on his back was not something easy to miss. The first three pulled out cutlasses and charged. Vivi's hair stood on end and the remaining bubbles in it popped as Billy squawked, a bolt of lightning attracted to the pirates' metal swords. They cried in pain as Billy turned tail and ran, only to smack into a wall that hadn't been there a moment before.
"What?" Vivi demanded, looking back over her shoulder. The hallway was constantly moving, wooden poles and walls sliding in and out of the walls, floor, and ceiling in a seemingly-random, dangerous dance. "Jump!"
Billy jumped, a plank of wood shooting out of the wall to his right just missing his feet. The bird landed on it, but the surprise attack didn't stay, sliding back into the wall with Billy still standing on it. He hit the wall, cushioning the impact for his royal cargo. The hit left him dizzy, giving the homefield pirates the time they needed to advance through the dangerous maze. Vivi's eyes hardened as the first pirate came within striking distance, punching him in the face before turning around and throwing him over her shoulder into the darkness below. The dazed pirate gave a moan from below. Billy stared at her.
"What?" she asked. "Princesses get kidnapped. Did you think I wouldn't know how to fight?"
The Gigafowl looked away with an embarrassed caw, allowing the badass royal to take her spot in the saddle back. With Vivi's directions, Billy started to make his way to the window he had entered from. Thanks to the princess' warnings, the traps and the pirates proved to be little in the way of obstacles. Within a minute, the pair reached the room with the weird hole-wall.
"Fehfehfeh!" Foxy's laugh echoed through the room, metal plated dropping to block off both the door and the window, plunging the room into darkness. The dark was only there for a second before spotlights cut though, shining down on the room in circling swirls.
"Ladies and gentlemen, pirates and ducks!" an announcer called, his voice echoing through the room. "He's a force of nature, the master of motion, and the lord of low blows! Beware his powers or you'll find yourself at his mercy! Presenting the the dirtiest scoundrel in all the seas, in the best possible way: our captain, our leader, 'Silver Fox' Foxy!"
The lights came on with a roar of applause, the light showing the roof of the room had been removed. A crowd of Foxy pirates, over 200 of them, stared down into the now-arena, screaming their support as the spotlights found their captain on top of the hole-wall. He smirked, raising his hands in a flamboyant gesture of showmanship.
"Feh feh feh feh! Welcome one and all to your captain's reclaiming of our prize! As you can see, this duck here wants to save the princess we so rightfully stole from her kingdom! How rude! As punishment, I shall force it to submit under the might of my Gorilla Puncher #15!"
Again, the crowd went wild at Foxy's declaration, said captain dropping into the pilot's seat behind him. The holed wall, which Foxy had called the Gorilla Puncher #15, whirled to life, boxing gloves punching from the holes in seemingly-random patterns as the robot slowly crept toward the duck and princess. Billy quacked, sending a small bolt of lightning toward the machine, but the electricity only dissipated off the metal surface.
"Feh feh feh!" Foxy laughed. "Fool! Did you think after the Gorilla Puncher #13 short circuited that I'd have any of the next models not be shock-proofed?" Billy stared at him, cocking his head to the side. Foxy paused. "Eh, I suppose you wouldn't know any of that... No matter! Face my wrath!"
Billy jumped back as the Gorilla Puncher #15 sped up, boxing gloves churning the air he'd been standing in. The crowd's cheering grew louder as Billy and Vivi were put on the defensive. Spreading his wings, the duck took flight, trying to fly up above the Gorilla Puncher's range.
"No you don't! Slow-Slow Beam!" Billy's eyes widened as his momentum stopped, his body refusing to move any faster than cold molasses while his mind stayed at its normal speed. He mentally demanded his body to turn or fly away or anything, but he could do nothing but hang in the air as Foxy approached. With a laugh, Foxy directed his machine to hit the duck repeatedly, avoiding Vivi on his back. Oddly enough, Billy couldn't feel any of the impacts despite knowing they were happening. "Gorilla Barrage!"
And then 30 seconds passed and Billy's world was pain, the combined force of all the hits he took while frozen sending him and the princess into the opposite wall. His head was ringing, drowning out Foxy's grating laugh or the continuous roar of the audience. Vivi groaned from beside him, not as injured but certainly not unscathed.
"That's what you guards get for fighting us!" Foxy called. "That bird-man was tough for a distraction, but it wasn't too hard to drive him off with numbers! Now you're all alone! Feh feh feh!" The pirate captain directed his machine toward the bird again, but the boat rocked before he could cover the distance, the sudden new angle of the ship sending the machine onto its side. Foxy rolled out of it with a groan. The boat shook again, the air filled with the sound of cracking wood.
"Captain!" a pirate's voice called from somewhere beyond the crowd. "It's the Alabastian Navy! They've got us surrounded!"
"What?!" the captain demanded. "How?!"
"With ships, sir!"
"That's not what I... Shit," the captain growled. a cannonball blasted through the upper part of one wall, leaving a gaping hole for sunlight to flood in from. Before Billy could capitalize on the initial confusion, it was added to in the forms of a falcon and jackal jumping through the roughshod skylight.
"Princess Vivi!" the jackal yelled. "We're here!"
"Chaka!" the princess cried. "Pell!"
"Duck, get her out of here!" Pell ordered, unleashing a barrage of bullets on the panicking pirate audience. "We'll cover you!"
Billy didn't think twice, running past Foxy, who had slowed all the bullets coming for him in midair, before taking flight, flapping his way into and through the opening while the king's advisers laid siege to the pirates inside. The duck smirked at Foxy's angered shouts of being foiled. Vivi seemed to have something to add, shouting back the way they had come.
"Bye, Split-Head!" she called, knowing the resulting depression it would put the pirate in. That was all the time the Zoans needed to disengage from the battle. The Foxy Pirates were once again quick on the uptake, however, beating a hasty retreat before too much damage could befall the Sexy Foxy.
Carue and the rest of the Super Sonic Duck Squadron were waiting on the ship when Billy arrived with the princess in tow, about half of them praising him for a job well done and the other half muttering about him not being too bad. Carue himself, after trying to run around Vivi and getting shooed off with an "I'm alright, Carue you mother hen," offered Billy a paper that had arrived that morning after their departure.
"You may want to see this," he said.
On its front page stood the alpha of Billy's flock, the duck unable to read the squiggles around it. Even so, Billy had picked up enough understanding of Alpha-Immune-To-Shock's mind to get the message. He turned to the head of Alabasta's special animal force, a question on his beak.
"So... are you looking for another member?"
End of Episode
This is the last, and longest, chapter of the New Timeskip Adventures. The next arc will return to Marineford and the ramifications that have culminated there. Coby and Ace are ready to be executed on live video for the crimes of others while a special force wishes for their release, but the pirates aren't the only ones with surprises up their sleeves. What the Marines have in store, however, you'll just have to wait and see! Until then...
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-SwordOfTheGods