Chapter 2: The Invisible Girl of Wind! Marine Captain Vergo attacks!

We have been at sea in our stolen ship for the past two weeks. Thanks to all the members of the former crew that had been in the ship, Gareth and I had more than enough food to last just the two of us for a long time. Gareth is currently at the helm, since he had knowledge of how to reach the nearest island, which apparently he had sailed to many times before the mayor came to power and he ate his devil fruit. The ship, luckily, is designed so that one person can sail it at a time, probably so that the leader, Chase, could control who they chased if at sea, so I am currently sitting down in the captain's room, my hands moving down and stitching up my new assortment of clothes, cutting pieces off of other articles and moving them towards the others and stitching them together, my head looks up at a shout from Gareth breaks through the fog of repetition that I had been in, "Land ho!"

Letting out a sigh of relief, I move the torn apart clothes to the desk and stand up, before moving outside as we sail on towards the island that Gareth had spotted,

"Great job Gareth. Any idea what island it is?" I ask, as I gaze across the ocean waters, our ship sailing towards a very bustling port for such a small island.

Gareth furrows his eyebrows, thinking before he slams a fist into his palm, "Aye! It's Karate Island, Captain. That's why there are so many ships here. It must be time for the annual Karate tournament."

I let out a sigh of relief, "you've been here before…" I state as I turn to face him.

"Yeah. I had to earn money somehow. I learned from skilled fighters here so I could win the tournaments held here to win money so I could get away from that island."

With that, I grin as we sail in towards the island, "In that case, we should be fine to approach. But either way, let's sail to the far cape and approach the town from the forest."

And with that, we sail on towards the far side of the island, preparing to disembark.

-Timeskip-

As we drop anchor on the shore, we hoist the sails and move off the ship, heading towards the town through the forest. Gareth takes care of the wildlife that challenges us as we walk through, using brutal martial arts skills to take down the monotony of karate animals, ranging from Kung Fu Panda's to Chokeholding Cobras….Then of course, a Punching Panther leaps at me, but I quickly grab the panther around the neck and clench my fist, crushing the panthers neck with ease and the forest suddenly falls silent.

"Anyone else want to challenge me?" I call out, a deep red gleam in my black eyes, before continuing on towards the town, the martial animals moving out of my way out of self-preservation before challenging Gareth, which causes him to fall behind.

Trusting that Gareth can fend for himself, I go on ahead, finally making it into the town proper, which seems to be packed to the gills with tourists and fighters, both grizzled veterans and wannabe fighters who've obviously never thrown a punch, and surprisingly, a huge amount of white coated marines sprinkled through the crowds.

As I wander through the pagoda style streets, filled with houses and archways, along with old style dojos and places of fighting, I feel as though someone was watching me. As I stop and spin around slowly, I notice a group of four marines gathered at the end of the street.

"She went this way, I'm sure of it!"

"Blast it, you lost her! Now Captain Vergo will be disappointed!"

"I can't help it! How do you keep track of an invisible girl?!"

"It can't be helped. Let's go and search the area thoroughly before we quit.

"Oh? Invisible girl…interesting…"

I quickly walk down the same way I came in, heading towards where I felt someone watching me. Sure enough, I see a little girl hiding under a bench. She appears to be about 12 years old, with long waist length navy blue hair and navy eyes, wearing a sprinkled white and gray dress. She gasps as soon as she sees that I saw her and disappears into thin air, causing me to blink rapidly before noticing a blurry waviness in the same spot. Grinning at the spot, I move over and sit on top of the bench, moving so my tattered dress fell in front of the bench, turning to look up at the bunch of marines that had rushed down the street.

"You there! Have you seen a girl with blue hair?"

Blinking in concentration, I tilt my head back, before responding.

"Hmm…Oh yeah! I think I saw her run that way, into the forest." I state, as I point to the forest.

The marines then rush off towards the forest without even thanking me, and I let out a scoff, "typical marines…." I sneer before moving to the side and speaking to the air, "It's alright. The bad people are gone now."

As I sit there, the blue haired girl appears on the bench next to me, "Why didn't you turn me in to them?"

I shrug, "I hate marines. Plus you seem like a nice girl. Why do they want you?"

She sighs, "Well, everyone on the island wants me because of my powers. Ever since I ate the Wind Wind fruit, all the fighters and managers have wanted me to help them cheat in the tournaments. My family wound up dead because of all the fighting over me….even the marine captain came here to catch me."

My eyes narrow before I sigh, "Unfortunately that won't change….people are all selfish. Well, as long as I'm here, nobody will hurt or catch you. After all, I'd like to be your friend."

The girls eyes widen before tearing up, "R-really?"

I nod as I hold out my hand, "I care only for those who are my allies, family or my crew. We destroy anyone who threatens our freedom to live the way we want too." I smile at her before holding out my hand, "I'm Ashley. Want to join my crew and become as free as the wind you are?"

The girl smiles through her tears and places her small hand in mine, "Yeah! I'm Wendy. Let's go!"

-Timeskip-

I head back through the town, Wendy now sitting on my shoulders, invisible with her wind powers but her hands holding onto my hair, anchoring her in place.

While we're on our way to meet with Gareth at his sensei's house, I spend some time talking with Wendy and getting to know her better. Since this was just supposed to be a supply gathering trip, he had went to meet with his sensei to get supplies while I wandered the town before going to meet with him.

Now I knock on the door and wait, playing with Wendy who was twirling my hair around, before the door opens to reveal Gareth, who grins, "Captain!" and grabs me in a hug.

Before I could flick his nose for getting too close to me, he starts whispering in my ear, causing me to realize that he was using the hug as cover to speak into my ear.

"Pretend to be a merchant captain."

Before dragging me into the dining room, where, sitting around a table on the floor, was an old man with spectacles and a thin, wiry frame, wearing an orange and blue gi and a man with a marine captain uniform on, long blue marine trousers and a white marine uniform, as well as wearing black sunglasses. He was a tall, light-skinned and lean man, yet muscular as well. He also had jagged lightning bolt like sideburns and the beginnings of a mustache, as well as, strangely, a set of chopsticks stuck to the left side of his face.

The old man holds out his arms, "Ahh! Here we are then. Your new merchant captain, is she, Gareth?" he asks, causing me to nod, "yeah. I'm Walker Ashley." I state, shaking the old man's hand while also looking at the marine sitting on the ground, who was silently staring at me.

The old man grins widely, a grin full of pride as he notices my attention, "Ah, this is the student of my best student. Miss Walker, meet Marine Captain Vergo from the North Blue."

Vergo turns his gaze from over my shoulder down to my eyes, as he stands up to offer his hand, "A pleasure."

My hand grips onto his hand, squeezing tightly as I stare into his sunglasses, "The pleasure is mine as well, Captain." While we're greeting each other, the old sensei leaves the room to get more tea leaves. As he returns my squeezing, my stare turns into a glare as soon as the old sensei leaves the room, and my hand tightens hard enough to crack bones,

"Listen to me, Marine filth….I don't know why you want her, but leave Wendy alone. She's mine now, and if you don't, I will annihilate you and anyone stupid enough to get in my way."

Vergo's kind façade wavers, as he states, "Oh is that so? You are willing to stand against the might of the World Government? After all, she's a dangerous girl, and must be locked up to protect others."

I grin darkly at him, "Well, in that case, I assure you that she's in good hands, since no matter how dangerous she is, I am far more dangerous than she is, marine filth. Nobody will stand in my way and live to tell about it."

Vergo's façade suddenly shatters at my words, as his hand turns black, "You have no idea who you're threatening, girl. Joker wants the girl, and what he wants, he gets."

My glare deepens, my eyes turning red, "Not this time. If he wants her, he can come fight me himself, and I'll blow him away."

Suddenly the old man returns to the room, causing the massive tension in the room to disperse as both Vergo and myself return to our kind facades, since he, for some reason or other, had to keep his position until he got higher in the marines, and killing the old man would shatter relations between them and cause him to be investigated, and I had to maintain pleasantries for Gareth's sake, leaving both of us having to play the part as I release the marine's hand. "Nice to meet you, Captain. Gareth, let's go. We still have to load the ship and leave if we want to meet our deadline."

With that, I bow to the old sensei before striding out of the house, Gareth following me after saying a hasty farewell to his sensei.

As I head towards the forest and our ship, Gareth races after me,

"What the fuck was that?!" he roars angrily at me, and I grab him and shove him against the wall, "The girl they want is our newest crew member." I snarl before explaining Wendy's situation. After hearing about Wendy's situation, Gareth quickly apologizes and Wendy floats up to sit on his shoulders. We start heading out of the town and reach the forest, avoiding the marines rushing through the town. As we run through the forest, I quickly throw myself forward in a somersault, dodging as a black fist slams into the ground where I had been, revealing the Marine Captain as my assailant.

"Gareth, take Wendy and go! I'll hold him off!" I shout, causing them to flinch before they run off, as I turn around, ready to fight Marine Captain Vergo, who immediately lunges for me, his fist ready and covered in black. Believing that my devil fruit defenses would protect me, I arrogantly ignored his fist and prepared to punch him…but the breath suddenly leaves my lungs as the black fist bypasses my defenses and slams into my stomach, before sending me flying. I land on the ground, bouncing multiple times before I flip over to land on my feet.

Panting for breath, "So….you can hit me…" I breathe out as I glare up, before my eyes widen as my opponent seems to disappear, before he suddenly appears in front of me, black fists and legs moving to slam into me. A fist slams into my right breast, then my left shoulder, followed by a leg sweep into my stomach again. I go flying again, only for the marine to continue the assault, his fists slamming into my body over and over until finally he stops and I land in a heap on my back on the ground.

As I try to gather myself, I look up to see the marine standing above me, a sword now in his hand, looking down on me as I watch the sword become black like his fists, before he raises the sword, "Joker always gets what he wants. He's a new world pirate, far out of your league, and now you're gonna die, and so is your companion before I take the girl to him."

Lying there, covered in blood and bruises, I start laughing as I realize something, and also confusing Vergo, who blinks as I continue laughing. "What's so funny, pirate?" Vergo demands as I reach out with my devil fruit, "You showed me that there's still so much I have to learn…but I refuse to die here!" I scream out as I reach out with my destruction powers, unleashing one of my techniques developed on the unique fruit land.

Suddenly spheres of red-yellow light appear around Vergo and myself before, "BLEVE!" I roar as I clench my fist, detonating the spheres I created, and the massive amounts of explosive energy within, causing a truly massive cascade effect that causes the explosions to expand outward in an increasing effect that shakes the entire island and even splits the entire Martial island, easily triple the size of the other islands I had been on, into three separate chunks, as the explosion causes the land itself to tear itself apart at the center of my blast, and a funnel cone shaped explosion forms in the sky before a massive shockwave expels outward.

A gust of wind suddenly picks me up before I could fall into the ocean that had appeared, lifting me to land on my ship's deck as Wendy grabs my hand and floats me with her Wind logia powers, and I manage to stay awake long enough to see Vergo fall into the ocean with a splash.

Struggling to stay conscious, I look over at a teary eyed Wendy, "Get us out of here Wendy…" I manage to get out before slowly passing out. Then everything goes black as we sail away….

End Chapter 2