Different Fuel

Valerie moved through the hallways looking for remaining pirates. She was starting to feel the effects of the Buster Call. It wasn't a good thing. It was horrible. Every cannon ball that hit the island made it shudder, the hallways were filled with screams, the entire island was in a panic. And it translated to her as well. She was starting to feel the overwhelming desperation from the pirates. She swallowed her fear and descended a little deeper. The Buster Call wasn't done with yet. They were still warming up the big guns for the Grand Finale. She just needed to get in, make sure no pirates were trying to sneak out, and get out herself.

She came to a screeching halt in one of the hallways. It was to the side away from the direction she was heading in, but nonetheless the scene immediately grabbed her attention. Not only due to the obvious carnage, but because…it was indiscriminate. She saw Marines and pirates laying about, all of them had a gaping a hole in a random spot. No, not random…Valerie realized as she got closer. The spots were not random they were all located where a vital organ was. All of those vital organs, however, had been ripped through.

One of the men, one of her men, a Marine, had had his heart ripped through. She bent down to examine the wound and immediately felt a pit in her stomach form. The wound was unnatural. Ordinarily the power needed to pierce through the skin, ribs, and heart would have left a horrid wound, ragged edges, but this wound was smooth it was reminiscent of a surgery wound. Valerie thought for a second about rubbing her fingers in the wound, feeling the smooth torn skin, but suddenly she remembered that it was a corpse…and the thought vanished, replaced with sheer sickness.

She withdrew her hand and walked away. Her interest was still strong in who could do such a thing. She knew it wasn't a Marine who had this power, so that meant a pirate was like this. She tried to calm down, but she couldn't. The air of the Buster Call wasn't allowing something like that, wasn't allowing her to calm down. The tension was palpable…the screams of Marines and pirates alike were roaring through the building.

And they were getting worse. Even when she covered her ears they would still pound into her head. She wasn't tired at all, but she was on the verge of collapse because of this. Because of those voices, she felt like falling and giving up. She lost it. Valeria collapsed. The voices emanating in her head as if they were no longer coming from the world around her, but in her head. She felt the voices pounding in her head; no one was around for the screams to come from. It must've been her imagination or something.

She tried to stand back up, but another pounding scream sent her scrambling back to the ground. The voices were loud, so very, very loud. She felt a hand confidently clamp onto her shoulder, she spun around striking the air, but quickly collapsing again from the emanating screams.

It was her partner, the man in the mask who was standing behind her. He crouched down next to her, despite his mask there was an obvious smile underneath it. "I was wondering when it would be," he said as he looked down at her. He snaked a small syringe out of his pocket and injected its contents into her, "this is just a mild sedative…nothing to worry about. This is just you gaining access to your Haki. We all went through it, however, very few ever had it awaken in a place like this."

"You'll definitely become a magnificent Marine, so stay alive," he said as he lifted her upon one of his shoulders and headed out. He spared a moment looking down the hallway at the wounded bodies of the Marines. "Ah, the good old days." With that he disappeared into the darkness of the hallways.

(-With Maria-)

Maria was still struggling to break free from the heavy black wall that was sucking her in. She couldn't escape. The only thing that was saving her from completely disappearing into it was her own leg strength. She had them firmly planted into the ground, she refused to let something like this be the end of her. She buried her feet into the floor tiles and tried to stay strong. Only problem was the other people around her. She felt another idiot slam into her back and force her forward another few inches into the mass and then again and again. She was slowly being engulfed into the darn wall due to the brats behind her, foolishly charging forward. She tried to break free, but she couldn't.

She tried to pry herself from the wall, but couldn't. She struggled once more, but finally she just had to admit she had lost to the blob. She let her muscles relax as she felt another idiot bump into her from behind. Did she really just lose? She had been fighting for such a long time…she was going to be a semi-finalist in the URA tournament. Her goal was going to be the strongest and she just gave up to…a black blob? She wasn't even best by a human? She wasn't giving up like this.

She twisted around, clawing outwards trying to find something. She felt something cold rub against her. She stretched out once more, smashing her hand into whatever it was. It was sheer luck that she found it, she felt herself getting sucked deeper into the black blob. But she hadn't given up yet, with her hand smashed into the wall, she tried to grab ahold of it. She buried her fingers into, pulling herself forward. A desperate attempt to break free.

She pulled forward, trying to yank herself free from the blob's own inner-suction. She wasn't backing down in this case. She'd stay strong and break free somehow in some way, she'd break free eventually. Suddenly she felt an arm wrap around her neck and yank her back. Maria twisted around, eager to see who was holding her back. To her surprise she saw Duncan with one arm confidently wrapped around her neck. Maria turned around once more, panickedly sending out a fast swing. Her punch buried itself into the side of Duncan's head. The tar-like composition of the head exploded in several directions, it crept all over her fist. Duncan's smile didn't fade, his head may have been caved in from one punch, but he didn't seem fazed by it.

"You're gonna have to try harder than that," said Duncan as several tendrils of his tar-like body whipped out and around her, restraining her movements. A heavy, almost solid blob of tar came shooting out slamming into Maria's head, yanking it back. Her eyes went wide as the pain resonated through her face. She struggled again to break free, her arms testing the strength of the tar ropes, but she couldn't break free. She spun out, launching a wild kick into nothing. She felt her feet squish into the tar wall. She tried to yank her foot free from the oppressive grip of the heavy tar, but the tar adamantly remained glued to her leg despite her berserk protests.

Maria rotated around again, trying to pry herself free again. She fired a quick punch into the utter black blobs that surrounded her. She felt her fist slip straight into it, the black liquid once more engulfing her. She struck out wildly, slamming her elbow into the blind spot behind her. She felt it hit the same black liquid once more.

The tar stretched off of Maria, freeing her instantly. She looked around for a second as she noticed the tar was gradually backing off giving her more space enough to run around for a few seconds, she was free? No, she wasn't. She was just given more room. She was still trapped like a rat. Even now as she scanned her surroundings, she had no idea what to do. There was nothing around her…just a big black wall of some kind of liquid.

"Logia-Type, Taru-Taru no mi*," laughed Duncan as he continued to slide around Maria. "Right now you are perfectly incased in a giant tar bubble. Ordinarily anything that gets absorbed into my body stays in my body forever, never aging, never even growing aware of being inside my body. However, that seems rather rude to my boss' little prospect. So, I'll give you an honorable death! Tar Pistol!" A slight ball of tar dripped off of one of his fingers. He flung it forward, sending a hardened ball of tar for Maria. It blew solidly into Maria's body forcing her to step into the tar again.

Maria ripped herself free from the tar once more. She was breathing heavily as she was tired from her previous struggling. She brought her two arms up to her side, clasping them in front of her. The guard was one of the most solid ones possible, she began to rapidly turn around trying to relocated Duncan, but he somehow managed to remain out of sight. She couldn't find him. She kept spinning around to find her attacker. She smashed her foot forward and remained steady. Her head kept swiveling from side-to-side to keep her eyes open.

Several shots of tar came shooting in, splashing around her feet. They basically froze straight over them, freezing them in place. She struggled to break free, but she couldn't. The tar was basically like incredible glue, her feet couldn't rip themselves free from the tar. She felt a heavy blob smash into her back. Duncan had circled around. He swerved around her now that her feet were stuck to the ground and now he launched attacks at her back. It was a cheap trick, but Maria couldn't expect everyone to fight fairly.

Maria sensed it for a second. She rotated around, twisting her hips as much as they could. Her entire body was rotating to the side. She struck out, she felt her fist bury itself it into more tar. But she saw it. It was buried in Duncan's face. His entire face had melted away into a half-tar, half-human mush. Crap, she pulled her fist out and watched Duncan's face reform. The cruel smile was still present on his face. It looked like it didn't even bother him, one of her strongest punches just didn't bother him. How much force would she need to put behind her punch to blow away that smug look on his face?

Duncan was hiding and attacking from her blindspots, which were huge due to the fact that her feet were stuck. Sadly, even if she could catch him and hit him, she couldn't hurt him due to the bastardly Logia powers he possessed. She was at a complete disadvantage compared to Duncan. She tightened her fist as she tried to find him again. He was like a shark in a goddamn ocean…and she guessed that made her a sitting duck. She tried to rip her foot free from the tar once more and there was some give to it, but she still couldn't break free.

She ducked just as another hardened ball of tar whizzed above her head. She tried to calm down, but the attacks from Duncan made that near impossible. The continuous chain of attacks that came screeching for her every second made it impossible for her to remain positive. She was in one of the worst positions humanly possible.

Maria struck out once more. She forced all of her power out into her legs. She rotated around, forcing the power out. Her power stretched out from her shoulders down into her wait and from there it spread out into his legs. She smashed through the tar and broke free. She almost stumbled out, but she immediately struck out with her legs. She fired multiple kicks into the air to ready herself for the incoming attacks.

Great, one obstacle down…two more to go. She was still trapped within this bubble of tar with Duncan swirling around, his killing intent leaking out all over the small room Maria had been given. Not to mention her punches still had no effect on him. She stretched out with her arms and did a quick round of shadow boxing as she prepped for the incoming attacks, undoubtedly Duncan was readying his new strategy to take down the newly freed cyborg.

Overheating

A chapter a week is the plan! It feels good to be writing and updating this quickly again. It's nice…anyways, it appears Valerie is growing at an alarming rate. It looks like she is also awakening her Haki in a similar way Cobi unlocked his. Lots and lots of people dying around them. But chances are you are more focused on her partner whose name (and face) have yet to be revealed.

Other than that! Big, big news! I am working on something very special for Saga. I'll tell you when it's completed. I already about 20% of it completed since I thought of it last week. As long as I don't hit any bumps in the road it should be awesome!