Trouble Part Three

Disclaimer: Don't own One Piece.

Yeah, I kinda had it rough the first time I met these kids...especially with Scotty. I can understand his pain of his family being taken away from him, but he thinks all pirates are bad, which we're not! He was stubborn, but soon enough, he'd come around...

He'd have to if he wanted to survive to see Christmas this year.

December 23rd

"NICK! NICK!!"

"Oh, what now?" Nicholas sighed as he quickly exited one of the back rooms, locking it behind him, I don't have time for fights, guys, I need to get this ready for Christmas!

As soon as he pulled the key from the door's keyhole, Scotty, plus a handful of children, came running up to him, looks of panic, fear, and other emotions plastered on their faces.

Something was wrong.

"What is it, what's wrong?"

Everyone started talking at once, but Scotty quickly silenced them with a wave of his arm.

"Nicholas, about that pirate brat-,"

"Scotty, not this again...,"

"But Nicholas-!"

"He's harmless, and it's almost Christmas, so please put your feelings aside, Scotty. I mean, if pirates and marines can stop fighting and sing together on one of the most special nights of the year, I'm sure you can do the same for him," (1)

"Nicholas, you don't understand!"

"What don't I understand?"

Scotty opened his mouth to speak, but quickly shook his head and grabbed Nicholas' arm, tugging hard on it, "You need to see this!"

The children dragged Nicholas upstairs into one of the rooms where the children slept, over to an unusually large telescope that was positioned at the largest window. It was a telescope that Nicholas had found somewhere along the Grand Line, and it was capable of seeing for miles and miles, something that proved really useful nowadays when on the lookout for things...or when nosey people minded other people's business from a distance.

"What is this about, Scotty?" Nicholas asked after a short while, "My patience is wearing thing and if you think-,"

"Look into the telescope, Nicholas!" Scotty pleaded, cutting him off, "Please, you need to see this for yourself or else you won't believe us,"

Nicholas looked hard at Scotty. This was a boy who was a little bit of a troublemaker from time to time, and one who had told a little white lie now and then, but there this look on the boy's face that told him that there was definitely something wrong...or at least something that rattled him. The fat man walked over to the telescope and positioned his eye over the lens. It took him a short time to get it focused for his old eyes, but when he did, he saw what it was that shook the children so much.

A pirate flag.

A pirate flag on a boat.

A pirate flag on a boat docked on the beach and a large group of pirates heading inland, in their direction.

"Oh dear," Nicholas looked back at the children, "Looks like we have company, children...anyone know who they are?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"I don't know who they are, but I know how they got here!" Scotty raised his hand and snapped his fingers. Almost immediately a couple of bigger children came through the crowd, dragging a thrashing Austin, Pingu and Sora to the front, "The pirate brat and his filthy pirate pets must've attracted those other bastards here, so now we got trouble and it's all their fault!"

Pingu honked angrily while Austin shot him a deathglare.

"I say we toss him out in the snow and lock the animals away," Scotty crossed his arms, "Then we can deal with those other pirates,"

"No!" Nicholas stomped forward and looked down at the children, the look in his eyes making them release Austin and the animals almost instantly, "It is not their fault, Scotty,"

"Oh yeah, then whose fault is it?!" Scotty demanded, "Nicholas, there's a boat full of pirates, who are coming this way! We haven't had any problems for months and then they show up suddenly and we got a problem! It's their fault!"

"For the last time, no it is not!" Nicholas roared, making everyone shrink back in both surprise and fear, "Now I know that you're scared, Scotty, I know that you all are scared...but believe me when I tell you that Austin and the animals are not at fault here! I don't know why they've come here, but I swear to you that no harm will come to any one of you,"

"Oh yeah? What are you gonna do, Nicholas?"

The old man cleared his throat and tugged at his beard a little, "I'm going to ride down there and meet them. I'll be able to see if they're peaceful or not,"

"And if they're not?"

"If they're not...," Nicholas trailed off, "You won't have to worry about them,"

With that, the fat man walked past the group of children and out of the room.

"Scotty, what do we do now?" one of the younger children asked quietly.

The older boy frowned, "We see what Nicholas does...,"

"What about them?" the other kid asked, nodding to a sore-looking Austin, Sora and Pingu.

Scotty glanced at them, then looked away, "Leave them alone...for now. C'mon, we got things to do,"

Everyone nodded and left the room, leaving Austin and the animals alone in the room with the telescope.

"Isn't this time of year supposed to make people good to each other?" Sora asked, turning to Pingu.

Pingu shrugged a little, "Doesn't work for everyone...now there's just one thing I'm wondering,"

"What's that, Pingy?" Sora asked, earning a glare from the penguin.

Pingy...er...Pingu, looked up at Austin, "I'm wondering what he's gonna do,"

"Why are you wondering that?"

"Because he has that look in his eyes,"

"You mean...?"

"Oh yeah," Pingu nodded, "That look,"

"Cap'n, why are we making a base camp here, why don't we just camp on the ship?" Billy asked the short leader, holding his arms, "It's frickin' freezing out here!" (2)

"Yeah, Boss, Billy's right, we'd be much warmer inside the ship," Bob hissed through chattering teeth, "What's the deal?"

Billy Bob, who was wearing a very warm coat, laughed at his subordinates, "I just thought you'd enjoy being off the ship boys...I know I do,"

"If you like being off the ship, does that mean you enjoyed going for that swim?" Bob asked him, "I still don't know why you wanted to do that,"

"Maybe he needed to wake up?" Billy thought aloud, shrugging.

Billy Bob turned on them, a very pissed off look on his face, "I DIDN'T GO SWIMMING YOU LUNKHEADS, YOU PUSHED ME INTO THE OCEAN! I'M LUCKY THAT I DIDN'T DIE OF PNEUMONIA OR HYPOTHERMIA!!"

"Captain Billy Bob, there's something coming this way!" one of the other pirates shouted from the ship, "Something big and it's coming in fast!"

Billy Bob quickly went from angry to happy and turned around, his gloved hands behind his back, "Was wondering when we'd get a welcome wagon,"

Billy Bob and his pirates waited a short while before a large sled pulled by reindeer not only came into view, but came to a stop a short distance from them. Billy Bob remained silent as Nicholas, dressed in his red winter coat climbed out, but when Billy and Bob saw him, they began to stammer like idiots...well, bigger idiots. Billy Bob glared at them, "Shut it, you fools, what's the matter with you?!"

Bob pointed to Nicholas, "I-I-It's...S-S-S-Sa...,"

"Santa Claus!" Billy finished for his nakama, "I don't believe it, we come here to get treasure from rich people and we run into Santa himself!" he waved furiously at the fat man, "Santa, I wanna tell you what I want for Christmas!"

"WOULD YOU TWO SHUT THE HELL UP?!" Billy Bob screamed at them, "That's not Santa Claus, that's just a fat guy in a red suit!"

Both Billy and Bob gawked at him.

"WHAT!"

"Boss, don't say that about Santa!"

"Yeah! Santa, he didn't mean it, he's just cranky because he fell into really cold water recently,"

"YOU IDIOTS PUSHED ME IN!" Billy Bob took a deep breath and turned to Nicholas, trying to remain calm, "Listen fatman-,"

"Santa,"

BB's eyes twitched, "You got yourself quite a stomach there. How much you have on ya?"

Nicholas looked at the pirate crew, "I don't know why you're here, but I have nothing you'd want. I'm giving you a chance to go away without getting hurt, but only one chance...think very carefully here,"

The small captain let out a smaller laugh, "Don't you know who we are?"

"I don't care," Nicholas shook his head, "Just leave or face the consequences,"

-Meanwhile-

"Scotty, what's going on?"

"I don't know, I can't see right, there's snow blowing around in the air!" Scotty looked up from the telescope, "Nick's there I know, but I can't really see...,"

"Move!" a girl a few years younger than him pushed him out of the way, "I've got better eyesight than you, so I'll look," she looked through the lens, "Oh crap!"

"What is it, what's wrong!?" Scotty pushed her out of the way and looked through the lens, "What's happening, Emily?"

The girl, Emily, held at her head, "I-I saw Nicholas and the pirates talking one minute...and then th-they all just jumped him! They all just attacked him at once!"

Scotty snapped his head to her, knocking the telescope off-sight, "WHAT?!"

"I don't know if he's okay, the snow got worse, but it didn't look good," Emily was close to tears, "What if they killed him? What if, what if they come here?"

"They'll kill us all!"

"I don't wanna die!"

"We gotta run!"

"But Nicholas-!"

"Nicholas can't help us, we gotta run somewhere safe!"

"Where hotshot, we'd freeze to death out there in that weather!"

Scotty watched everyone ask questions and freak out. He knew that they would look to him for help and leadership in this time, and they all knew he hated pirates and that he'd love to hurt them for what pirates did to him and his family, but in truth, he was terrified of them. Yes, he would love to get rid of some pirates, but if he ever met one of them up close, he'd most likely freeze up, becoming easy prey for them.

As the children panicked, Austin climbed onto the tallest thing he could see and let out a long, high whistle. The other children stopped freaking out and covered their ears to protect them from the noise, all of them looking at Austin as they did it.

"What the hell, kid?!" Scotty barked at him, "Why'd you do that?"

"To keep you all from running around like chickens with their heads cut off!"

Everyone went dead silent, their eyes getting wide.

Someone's gotta step up, and if it has to be me, I'll have to throw that away for now... Austin looked around, "First off, all of you calm down and shut the hell up!"

"You...can talk...?"

"Yes, I can talk!" Austin snapped, "I can talk just fine,"

"You liar! You made us think you were mute to make us feel sorry for you!"

"Pirates lie about everything!"

Austin shook his head, "No we don't, although some of them go through their whole lives lying about the smallest things. I never meant to fool any of you, it's just for most of my life, I have been mute, but I've gotten my voice back. I just got so use to not talking, I usually go with the mute appearance,"

"You asshole!"

"Yeah, asshole!"

"I SAID SHUT UP!" Austin yelled at the top of his lungs, "JUST SHUT UP!"

Everyone went quiet again.

"I heard what happened to Nicholas and what could happen," Austin said slowly, "I know that you're all scared and you should be. Most pirates are ruthless and won't hesitate to kill anyone that gets in their way. I don't blame any of you if you feel like you should run and hide, I really don't. There were times in my life when I felt like that, but this is not one of those times. This is a time that I'm gonna stand and fight it out,"

Scotty looked at him, scowling, "Fight it out? You?"

Austin nodded, "I'm stronger than I look and I can handle myself in a fight. I didn't earn my 18,000,000 Beli bounty for nothing," he grinned, "I can handle it,"

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are you gonna fight? This isn't your home, we're not your nakama, and after the way we-,"

"We?"

"Yeah, Scotty, we?"

"Awright, awright...after the way I treated you, you're still willing to fight? For us?"

Austin nodded.

"Why would you do that?"

"Because I know what it's like to be alone. I know what it's like to be alone and have someone important to you to count on and look after you," Austin's thoughts drifted to his brother, "I know what it's like to lose a family, but I also know when it's time to stop running and take a stand!"

"Is that all you pirates do?" Scotty asked him, "Fight?"

"When we need to, other times we have to run. Yes, even pirates run away from things," Austin looked at the crowd of children, "But I heard what you guys said and I know what it's like outside, so we cannot run from this, from those pirates. We have to stay here and fight them off,"

"We can't!"

"Yeah, they'll kill us all!"

"No, they won't," Austin shook his head, "Not while we're around!"

"We?"

Austin nodded as Pingu and Sora hopped up next to him, "We'll help you guys, but you gotta help us, because we can't do everything ourselves. We need to get some things done, but we're gonna need your help. How long will it take for them to get here, Scotty?"

The older boy glared at him for a bit as he thought, "It's hard to say. If they have survival gear, they'd be able to make it in a coupla days, but if they managed to hurt Nicholas and steal his sled...once they figure out how to control the reindeer and loaded up, they could be here by tomorrow or tomorrow night at the latest,"

Tomorrow night, huh? Austin nodded slowly, A Christmas Eve battle...sounds kinda poetic, I think. Okay, maybe not, but I'd chuck that poetic battle crap to the Shandian blood in my veins...

"So what's your plan, Blood Fist?"

"First off, call me Austin. Secondly, does anyone have a map of this building?"

Kilnorc: Okay, I know the biggest thing you're all thinking is "When the hell can Austin talk?" well...I can't say for sure, but let's just say that it's an Xmas miracle or something...hehehe. Hope ya'll liked. Thanks to Dragon's-Maidens for helping me out in this chapter!

(1) A One Piece version/reference of World War I where German and British soldiers ceased fighting and began to sing Christmas Carols together on Christmas Eve.

(2) This is my catch phrase during this time of year.