Side-Effects

Enma's entire body felt different. The drug not only influenced his Devil Fruit, changing the wavelength the same way the infamous Rumble Ball did, but it also changed his body. Enma originally had his doubts, but it was working the way he was expecting it to work…just slower. And ultimately it made sense. Drugs don't instantly affect the body, it usually takes time to digest and enter the bloodstream. It was foolish of him to expect an instantaneous infusion of power. Now that he knew about that he could start planning ahead, but first…first came taking down Docket!

Enma struck forward with his spear. Obviously it was spear and just as obviously it was too short to even make contact with Docket. However, that's where the drug provided Enma with a little flexibility. The spear twisted around and grew! Well, not actually grew. More like it shifted. The spear grew thinner, but longer as if it was no longer a solid bone. And it wasn't.

Enma had spent days focusing on the drug's effects, making sure everything was tuned to the exact measures he wanted. He felt as if he had finally grown close last time and he really did almost reach the optimum drug for him. It liquefied his bones. To ordinary people this would mean almost certain death, unable to remain solid, they would puddle onto the floor, useless, but for Enma this was a benefit. His Devil Fruit allowed him to manipulate even his liquefied bones, which allowed him to remain in his human form without becoming a puddle. More importantly it meant his weapons were no longer restricted to one shape.

Even as Docket began to dodge the extending spear Enma did not fret. His weapon was liquid and completely under his control. It was no longer limited to the idea of a spear. It curved right, changing its target mid-flight and turning towards Docket. Docket brought his two arms up to block and felt it as the liquid bone spear rammed into it. The liquid splurged into the cracks between his arms and the spear-tip reappeared on the inside of Docket's tight guard. Docket was immediately face-to-face with the weapon. He twisted around, throwing Enma's weapon aside and breaking free.

Docket jumped back, taking a few steps at once. He turned around to face Enma and let a single one of his weapons fly for Enma's head. The liquid bone oozed from Enma's body, covering his arm instantly, coating it in a tough steel-like bone armor. Enma reached up and blocked the incoming attack with his new handy-dandy bone gauntlet. The ball sunk into the liquid bone, settling in before it ever touched the skin that lurked below. Enma reached into the liquid and pried the small ball free. He tossed the small ball aside and began to walk towards Docket, in a well-paced stride at that.

Docket immediately began emergency actions. He took out six of his small ball versions and flung them all into different directions. They collided against walls, ships, columns, anything that they found and rebounded off of them. Suddenly one lurched out after one of its rebound and was headed straight for Enma. Enma leaned back and watched as the ball came whizzing by in front of his face. Immediately another one of the balls rebounded perfectly again coming flying for Enma's back. Once more the liquid bone came out of Enma, it covered Enma's back in the goo. The ball drilled into the bone, spinning and sending splurts of bone around, but once more it did nothing to the skin nor the person beneath it.

Enma took another step for Docket and at that one moment, he realized that something was wrong. The fight still hadn't left Docket's eyes. No, it was the far opposite of that. Not only was there still fight behind his eyes, burning brightly, but it was stronger like he had some sort of secret plan set in motion. Enma had no idea what it was, he was fairly certain he had already proven that all of Docket's weapons were useless in the face of Enma's superior Devil Fruit. He took another step forward, still keeping an eye on the balls that swirled around him. Finally, one was launched off of its trajectory and entered into Enma's zone. Enma swatted it aside again using his bone gauntlet. The sound of another ball came whizzing by Enma's ear. It would've missed him regardless, was that what Docket was planning to miss?

Enma shrugged it off and took another step forward for Docket. He was trying to figure it out, why had the light been extinguished from Docket's eyes? In all fights there came a point when you just gave up? Was this the irresistible pull of Marines? He remembered his young friend, Alice. She so wanted to be a Marine. And as Enma stood in front of Docket who continued to fight on, he had to applaud all Marines everywhere to keep fighting despite not having a fighting chance. It was a shame. But pirates were just better.

Enma reached back. His bone oozed out and quickly took the form of an irregular spear. Suddenly Enma felt something, a solid thud in his back. He remembered that a few moments earlier he had gotten a ball jammed into his bones, but that was it, nothing more to fear his bone armor had protected him. He realized that they may something more to it. Another ball, perhaps? He felt it instantly, just as he had feared. The second ball had come sliding. It smashed into the first, dispersing all of its energy into it. This caused the struck ball to sink in even deeper with new force behind it. The ball was propelled even deeper into his backbone.

Enma's eyes went wide as he accepted the shocking truth. If his backbone wasn't in its liquid form that attack probably would've caused paralysis for a few minutes if not for the rest of his life. He paused for a few seconds as he considered the possibilities. Docket was aiming for this move for awhile now. Enma couldn't believe cool headedness that was required to both think of and perform such a move. He was impressed by the move, but sadly he didn't think it completely through. Enma struck with his hardened gauntlet. Docket's eyes blurred as he was sent spinning to the side.

He collapsed to the ground in a defeated pile. Enma was breathing heavily. The hammered shot to his back was still reverberating into him. He looked over at the remaining Marines. There was still a large amount of them standing around, but the look on their faces was the same, shocked disbelief. They couldn't believe a Vice Admiral lost to a run-of-the-mill pirate. This was why they were hesitant to attack this ship! The ship of a Shichibukai was too much; they didn't want to be here. Attacking two Shichibukai's side-by-side? What were the higher-ups thinking? They grabbed their weapons and the unconscious Docket and rushed off.

Enma took a deep breath and turned around. He turned back around and started to head back to the ship, he needed some time to relax. Docket had actually pushed him hard, he needed to recover from the modest injuries Docket had decided to inflict on him.

(-On the opposite side of the island-)

The ground exploded. Through no use of the cannon, it was something else. Or someone else. 'Dark Knight' Shane was having a specifically fun time with the incoming waves of Marines. He decided to re-perform the same trick again. He placed his palm onto the ground and let it superheat the ground, causing it to explode once more, sending debris of concrete up into the air forcing the heavy shrapnel into the Marines guts, legs, and other various body parts.

Suddenly vicious vines came striking out of the ground, wrapping around the various Marines and dragging them back down. Each vine had dozens of thorns that tore into the Marines that they were wrapped around. Suzanne crept up next to Shane, "isn't this just so romantic?"

A gold plated warrior zoomed in striking down another group of Marines behind them. It was Armani Dove. He laughed as he threw his head back and looked at them, "extremely romantic, my dear." He struck down another Marine as they were charging for him.

Suzanne growled and was about to strike out against him with her own Devil Fruit power, but Shane stopped her. He didn't care for Armani Dove, but as it currently stood he was holding up his end of the bargain. These Marines were relentless, so it was nice to know that someone else on the island was actually capable of taking them down without skipping a beat. So far each Marine Shane took down brought another two or three with him. He couldn't take down all of them by himself and his crew was busy readying his ship. It was him, Suzanne, and Armani who were holding off the waves right now.

Another Marine charged them. Armani twisted around and sent his fist straight into the man's head, throwing over to Shane. Shane twisted around, spinning his unwieldy halberd around and up into the man sending him rocketing sky-high. The man's torment didn't stop there. Suzanne's thick thorn-covered vines shot into the air, wrapping themselves firmly around the Marines and then bringing him smashing into the hard floor. The combined triple attack definitely finished off the poor man, rendering him useless and possibly handicapped for the rest of his life, if not worst.

The rest of the Marines all had obvious worry written on their faces. None of them wanted to rush forward to meet what would probably wind up being their end. They didn't retreat, knowing better than to show fear in the face of adversity especially with their superiors watching from aboard the ship. A cannon ball from one of their ships fired out landing near them.

(-With Trevor-)

Trevor tapped impatiently on his throne. He had grown weary with waiting; he figured he should leave now. But he wanted the Marines to know he wasn't afraid of them. He had no sort of trepidation for them. He was a match for them and he wanted them to know it. This was only his first step.

His reputation as a cold-blooded killer wouldn't last him forever. He would need a new reputation and one that would freeze all of his enemies' blood. He had already decided that the Grand Line presented him with no challenge. His goal was the New World. He would gather a new crew and set sail, aiming to take the world by storm. And with his reputation as both a Shichibukai and now a survivor of the Buster Call, they would flock to him. Flock to his new pirate flag.

He had Makada and Duncan already enlisted in his crew. A master swordsman and skilled Logia user. The thought of the monstrous crew made him beam. A destructive force like no other was about to be unveiled onto an unsuspecting world. He paused for a second as he realized that Makada had not yet returned from his little venture.

Not to mention there was the matter of Duncan. Trevor scratched his head, wondering why Duncan left. As far as he could remember there was an intruder or a similar matter and Trevor had told Duncan to handle it, but that was it. He didn't remember who it was or if there was even an intruder? Trevor felt slightly crossed at this matter as now. He just couldn't shrug it off. Now who ever entered this room Trevor had to personally take care of. This was just a little annoyance, but seeing as how Trevor was currently betting both his position as Shichibukai and owner of the URA today he would rather not have any other annoyances.

Just outside Trevor's room a young girl was standing there, looking in at the room. She had a smile on her face. She did what she was supposed to do…she got Trevor alone. Now it would be a straight-up even one-on-one fight between Mikoto and Trevor.

Different Fuel

I was really ho-humming it about the ending, but I really wanted to point out this young woman one MORE time before the end of the URA arc. Can you find when I pointed her out before? I have just put the finishing touches onto the URA arc, so I'll probably be kicking this into a once a week posting until it ends or at least until the Mikoto-Trevor fight.

However, I'm going to be away from the computer for the next few days (this will not interfere with the uploading schedule at all not even Iron Hammer's and Soul Eater's), but I will be unable to answer any further questions until Saturday possibly even Sunday. (Don't worry its nothing serious).

Also for those of you who think this is it…there is no possible way for this arc to have any plot twists left…you are wrong…so, so, so, so, so wrong!