Chapter 18:
"Drake vs Catarina Devon!"
"Drake?" Luffy said and scratched his chin, trying to remember where he heard that name before.
"He's one of the other Supernovas like Kid," Sanji told his clueless captain. "You should start remembering who these guys are."
"Got it," Luffy said with a nod and he put a finger in his nose, twisting it around like he was paying attention to something else. "And who's..."
"One of Blackbeard's commanders," Robin cut in, knowing her captain enough to know what his next question was going to be. "Escaped from Impel Down around the same time you did."
"Huh?" Luffy took the finger out of his nose and turned his head slowly to the left. Blackbeard's huge crew was cheering for their commander and the woman was walking down towards the broken up stone section of the arena. The whole place was a mess, with the sand area looking the least damaged of them all only because huge stone chunks weren't covering it. Jozu's attack earlier left everything in bad shape, and no one showed any intention of cleaning the place up.
Catarina Devon jumped from halfway up the bleachers and landed on a thin piece of stone near the lake. She knew enough about her foe to know he had a Devil Fruit, so she would be keeping this close to the water for the entirety of the match. She was looking around for her opponent and when she found him, she took a small step back.
Everyone in the room started turning their heads to find X Drake, and when they did, their jaws dropped a little. Drake was slowly standing up, in the same area that Stix got up the round before. His crewmate was just executed mid-battle with Eustass Kid, and he couldn't do anything to stop it. He was pissed. The black aura surrounding him as he walked down the steps towards the arena made everyone in the seats bordering the stairs push themselves as far from him as they could.
"It must be hard," Nami whispered. "Thank God Franky made it out of there okay."
Zoro didn't even mention anything skeptical about God, because at that moment he agreed with her completely. They'd never gone through the pain of losing a nakama, and he never wanted that day to happen. It was his job to make sure that didn't happen, and in a place like this, he couldn't prevent it.
Drake jumped from the stairs and flipped several times in the air before landing on a chunk of stone on top of the snow section. Catarina looked over at him, she was wearing a purple jacket over her bright red shirt, had huge gold ring earrings, and a blue pearl necklace. Her pants were black leather, just like her opponent. Drake had on a black headband diagonal across his face with a hole in it when it went over his left eye. His hair was brick red and sticking straight up, and he had a short beard underneath his chin. His chin had an 'X' shaped scar on it, and there was a large black 'X' tattooed on his chest as well. He wore a black leather jacket along with his leather pants.
The man's eyes were shadowed as he stared down at the floor during the countdown. "What? No quips before we fight?" Catarina sounded disappointed, "You're no fun." She rose the spear in her right hand and put both hands on it. Her foe reached down to his hip with three seconds to go and he drew a long rapier with his left hand.
Stix, I will win my next two matches, and I will avenge you. I'm coming Kid, he glared forward at the opponent he had to beat first to get there. His jacket was open so his muscular chest was completely visible, and when the countdown hit zero, his muscles bulged for a split second before he was gone.
The monster trio and Robin were able to follow the man's movements, while the rest of the Straw Hats looked around confused at where Drake went. Catarina Devon was a prisoner of Level 6 in Impel Down, she was a commander in Blackbeard's pirate army; she knew how to handle herself. The woman rose her spear up to her right and at the same time the captain of the Drake Pirates seemed to become visible on her right, swinging his sword across at her.
"Oh, so you're fast," the woman mused in a cocky tone. She twisted her spear and parried the blow, knocking Drake off-balance as she went in for the stab. The man she was fighting made eye contact with her while he was in midair and he had the time to dodge, but he didn't. The pirate captain moved down into the incoming spear, causing half the crowd to gasp at the stupidity.
His foe was stunned that her first strike hit the insanely fast man. She knew his speed was enough for him to dodge it; the attack was purely meant to put some space between them. Time seemed to slow down as the tip of her spear went into her opponent's shoulder and he pushed hard into it. Stix, he didn't register the pain he felt as he pushed farther into the attack, reaching down with his right hand and grabbing the ax he had yet to draw.
The woman tried yanking her spear from his left shoulder as he kept sliding down it, but the man dropped the rapier from his other hand and gripped the wooden spear tight, impaling himself further on it so that the point of the weapon shot out the other side of his shoulder and through the leather jacket with a splatter of blood. The crowd winced, unlike the man who was impaled who just lifted his double-sided ax with his right hand. "Shit," she muttered and instead of yanking the spear in another futile attempt, she pushed it away to her right, at the same time that Drake was bringing down his ax.
"What's happening?" Usopp asked in the total time from Drake appearing to Catarina moving her spear enough for his strike to only graze her left leg. None of the members who could watch the match responded to him since they were too focused on the battle.
Chopper glimpsed Drake pull his ax out of the stone where he embedded it and swiped it across the woman he was fighting, slicing her stomach with a shallow wound. The Blackbeard Pirate hadn't given up on retrieving her weapon though and that was why she was still close enough to get hit by the ax. She reached over and grabbed the long piece of wood sticking out of her foe, pressing a button on the bottom of it that no one had seen before.
Instantly spikes shot out all over the wooden shaft. Each one was about two inches long, made of metal, and the part stuck inside Drake's left shoulder burst with spikes as well, causing the man to scream, finally registering the pain. He brought up his ax and smashed the wooden spear in half so that only a small piece was sticking out of his front and the metal point was out the back.
The woman Drake was fighting jumped over her opponent and grabbed the discarded rapier off the ground. The sword was a good weapon, and she was going to use it against its owner. She cackled as she grabbed it, seeing Drake spin towards her slower than before and easily dodging it. "What?" the man asked as he watched two Catarina's lift off the ground and in the air. His vision was getting blurrier and his eyes snapped open, Poison! It's not too late, I have to go all out now!
The woman with the sword charged forward, seeing the effects of the poison on each of the spikes finally taking effect. The two of them were moving slow enough for most people in the room to see now that Drake was drugged, and they watched the captain with the reddish brown hair sway in his spot. "Poison, a coward's weapon," Zoro muttered angrily.
X Drake had his fists clenched hard as the woman charged at him, and then his transformation hit. He'd perfected it in the last two years to the point where it took no time at all to shift his skin into a much harder, more protective skin. His blade was still sharp though, and Devon was strong. She slashed across his side the second he transformed and he roared out in pain while the crowd admired the Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit user.
The dinosaur man had short arms and powerful looking legs. His face was the most impressive though, as it showed no human resemblance. When he roared in pain, he also snapped his head to the right, even faster than when he originally moved at the start of the match. Devon thought her poison would still be having as much effect when he was in his dino-state, but Drake spun fast enough to catch the woman's entire left shoulder down to her elbow and much of her chest in the bite. His teeth were razor-sharp and he dug into her flesh easily.
Sanji's legs started to move on their own and Nami jumped up and grabbed him, "Stop it!" She yelled at him. He turned to her and the strength she was grabbing him with faded a little as she saw the strain on his face. His fists were clenched so hard as the woman shrieked in the background and his teeth were grinding against each other to the point he was almost breaking them. "You can't," she said to him in a softer voice.
His rage-filled mind calmed down a little as he thought about what would happen if he snapped here and ran to the arena. We'd start a fight with our enemies, then their allies would join, and our friends would help, and Nami-san, Robin-chwan, Rebecca-chan, Violet-san, Vivi-san, and all the ladies in the arena would be in danger, not just her! He calmed himself down and sat back in his seat, allowing Robin to uncross her arms and Zoro to slide his swords back into his sheath, both thinking they would have to restrain the cook if he tried anything stupid.
Catarina was struggling hard to get out of the bite hold that Drake had her in. Her blood was splashing down to the ground below her. Water! Her eyes darted to the lake, It's too far! She tried lifting the sword, but it was in her left hand and enough of her left arm was stuck in Drake's mouth that her arm wouldn't function properly. Just trying to lift the sword made her mind scream in pain and she dropped the weapon. "Get off of me, you fucking dinosaur piece of..."
Robin covered Chopper's ears by crossing her arms and making small fingers appear inside them. They were so small that they were barely noticeable, and the tiny reindeer rubbed his ears wondering why he suddenly couldn't hear anything. She smiled a little at his cute reaction and then uncrossed her arms when Devon stopped screaming.
The woman's mouth was still open, but instead of words, blood spilled out. Drake gnawed a little at the struggling woman, and one of his teeth that was barely in her chest moved a little farther in, puncturing her lung. He couldn't see her anymore due to the drugs, but he twisted his head with closed eyes, making her cough up more blood. I just have to hold on until they say I'm the winner, then Falco will get me an antidote. "Raaa!" he opened up his mouth, sending blood splattering up in the air, and then lifted his small arms, slashing the disoriented woman across the chest over and over.
His rage over the loss of his crewmate was taking over every other emotion in the poisoned state he was in. He reached a point where he forgot what he was doing, and where he was completely, tearing at the woman like she was a punching bag and he was releasing stress. It was when the announcer's voice sounded over the arena that he remembered where he was. He couldn't really tell what the man was saying, but the blur lying on the ground below him led him to believe that he was the one called out victorious, and his eyes closed.
Everyone watching the fight had a much different view on how it ended. Drake slashed the woman with his sharp talons a few times and she fell to the floor, but she was still struggling and punched at the man above her with her right hand a few times. While she was doing that, he started to miss his slashes, the poison she injected him with obviously messing with his vision. He started to un-transform while he was hitting the ground, and for a moment it made his vision better and he focused on the woman below him.
"What's he doing?" Vivi said, holding her hands in front of her eyes but peeking through, not wanting to miss the end.
"I don't think he even knows that he's not a dinosaur anymore," Brook whispered as he watched the man standing over Catarina, smacking her hands away and slashing at her face, stomach, and chest as if he had claws on his hands. One of his open fists slammed into her face in a wide hook and the struggle instantly left her as she was knocked out. Her right arm fell limp like her left and the announcer called out, "Winner: Drake!"
As soon as the announcement was made, Drake collapsed forward with his eyes closed, falling on top of his opponent. For a few seconds, everyone in the room was silent. Then the biggest cheer in a while sounded out, everyone roaring over the epic fight. Sanji stayed quiet, silently fuming in his seat, but a few of the Straw Hats cheered.
Televisions dropped down from the ceiling and the crowds looked up at the Instant Replay features the announcer told them about earlier during Dello and Kuzan's fight. It started from the beginning when Drake moved fast and swung his sword at the shaft, to when he slammed his body into it, to where the woman pressed the button and impaled him with poisoned spikes. Then the televisions went up, as the rest of the fight was mostly visible to the people there except for the moment Drake bit Devon.
The man from the earlier fight against Coribou, Falco, was down to the arena in less than two seconds after his captain fell. After picking up his captain with one hand, he reached down to the woman lying there as well since none of the Blackbeard doctors had run to her aide yet. One in her division was making his way down the steps, and shouted when Falco reached for Catarina's limp form.
The man who could turn into a blue Pterodactyl reached around inside the woman's coat, patted her entire body down until he felt a small vial-shaped object in her pants pocket. He reached inside and pulled out the vial, reading the label on it and smirking before jumping across the arena to the door for the hallway that leads to the infirmary. "That was an amazing fight folks! Don't you agree?!" Roars of approval rang out over the crowd and the announcer was getting everyone riled up.
"I wonder who will be in the next match," Nami said to Sanji, trying to get the chef's mind off of the injured woman on the arena.
As she finished saying it, the announcer spoke and it probably couldn't have been a worse matchup for Sanji to watch. "Gin vs Alvida!"
One of the rows very close to the front of the ice section was where Don Krieg's crew was sitting. The captain and Pearl were in seats there, both with bad injuries, but wanting to see this fight. "Win this fight Gin," Krieg growled, "we won't lose every match in the first round."
"Roger Captain," the man sitting right next to him stated. Gin stood up and the white jacket on his shoulders fell back so his whole upper body was revealed. He had a large scar down his right arm that snaked around it, and a few x-shaped scars on his very muscular chest. His beard stubble covered his chin and the man always had a serious look on his face, even if his droopy eyes always made it look like he hadn't got enough sleep the night before.
Up at the top of the dirt section, behind all the green cloaked figures taking up a lot of the area, the Buggy Pirates started cheering as Alvida stood up. The woman held a large iron mace in her hand, resting over her shoulder, but no one was paying attention to her weapon. Cat calls and loud cheers started sounding from all over the arena. Even the members of Don Krieg's crew, including the captain, felt their hearts flutter a little at the sight of the beauty walking down the steps.
Her hips swayed with every motion and under her white cowboy hat she had long black curly hair that fell behind her back. Everything about her was the sign of perfect beauty, and when she reached the dirt section below, she looked around and shouted, "Who's the most beautiful woman in the seas?!"
She held her arms up to the sides and accepted all the cheers coming from around the room. Shanks was leaning out of his seat with a lot of his crew shouting how lucky Buggy was, while Ben Beckman just shook his head from behind.
Luffy and Zoro stayed in their seats, but Nami felt her cheeks tint red and Chopper asked her why that was. She stammered out, "It's nothing!" But her heart was beating fast, never before having feelings for a woman like she was having for Alvida. Usopp, Sanji, and Brook were all hollering down and Terracotta elbowed Igaram in the side when she saw him gazing down there for too long.
The Franky Family were going nuts, and half of the audience was screaming about her beauty. She looked across the lake to the ice section where her opponent was standing. "What about you? Am I not the most beautiful woman you've ever seen?"
"I wouldn't know," he replied. Alvida was confused for a second, and then she looked closer and saw the muscular man's eyes were closed. He reached down to his right pant leg and ripped it off from the knee down.
"What are you doing?" She demanded to know. Lady Alvida looked up at the countdown and saw she only had five seconds left. "You think you can beat me without your eyes?!"
"Well," the first mate of Don Krieg replied. Four, three, "I don't think I can beat you with my eyes open," he tied the pant leg around his head so that his eyes were covered and he could use his hands. He rose his tonfa, "So it's worth a shot," Damn she was beautiful. He saw her from a distance across the entire room and he realized he was going to have to do this to win.
The woman glared intensely at the man and the timer hit zero, signaling the start of the fight. Gin raced towards her, sprinting across the snow section and then around the outside of the lake when he felt he had taken enough steps towards it. If he's going to fight me like this, he'll have to use his other senses instead, so I can't say a word, Alvida thought and quickly moved herself while keeping as quiet as she could. It wasn't hard to move silently when the crowd was so loud that it was hard to hear anyway.
The man didn't sprint for the spot she used to be at though, now he was heading the direction she was jogging. Her eyes doubled in size as he rose the tonfa in his right hand. "So you can see!" she exclaimed and rose her mace, swinging it at the same time that Gin swung his weapon. Crash! The woman's mace exploded into hundreds of metal shards. None of them went into her skin though, as she turned her skin silky smooth at the last second and deflected all the pieces.
"A Devil Fruit huh?" Gin muttered as his tonfa bounced off the woman when he smashed through her weapon. A dodge to the right, he was bringing around his other tonfa, but had to switch the angle at the last second to hit where she was dodging to. "Alright then," he brought both of his weapons above his head at the same time. The large metal balls at the end of his black weapons suddenly changed color and many people in the crowd noticed it.
"Really?" Zoro muttered and leaned forward in his seat.
Sanji wasn't surprised, but he worried for the beautiful woman Gin was up against. Back at Baratie, they fought at equal strength, though neither of them were at their best. He always wondered what would happen if they met again, who would have improved more. He watched the end of the weapons both turn a darker shade of black and he knew he had to fight this man again.
Gin strengthened his Armament Haki and then brought both of his weapons down in an arc. He knew where the woman was going to dodge to before she even started dodging, and he faked where he was aiming so that she would move even further into the dodge he'd already predicted. He was moves ahead of her, and when she lifted off the ground in a jump, still silky smooth, both tonfa balls slammed into her chest and knocked her into the surface of the lake.
"Alvida-sama!" Buggy's crew shouted.
"Alvida!" Many people in the audience shouted in fear. Several enamored pirate doctors realized this was their moment to make a good impression on Alvida and started rushing to get to the arena and be the first one to help her. Unfortunately for them, the Buggy Pirates already knew what to do.
Roz the Usurper was out of his seat and down at the arena in a few seconds. He growled deeply at Gin who walked past him unamused. The larger man with spiky orange hair looked towards the lake and dove in, reemerging a few seconds later with Alvida delicately held in his arms. It was weird that the man covered in piercings and tattoos could possibly hold a woman as delicately as he was, but then even more stunning was when he placed her down, put his ear to her chest and then did a few soft chest compressions until she spat up water.
"He's a doctor?" Usopp wondered out loud and Chopper punched him hard.
"There's no way he's a doctor," the reindeer stated.
"I won't forgive him for what he did to Kalifa-chan," Sanji muttered with a snarl.
"Remember what she said about him?" Nami whispered, "Mass genocide. It's amazing a man like him can be in a crew under the command of Buggy, he's clearly stronger."
Alvida pushed the man who helped her away and coughed a few times. That two-faced, yellow-bellied, piece of horse sh... She stared off in the direction Gin was walking and she saw a flicker of his head back towards her. Was he... her glare softened and her heart fluttered, is he... worried about me? Her head felt faint and she put a hand up to her forehead, falling back a little so that Roz needed to sturdy her.
"Well that's too bad," one of the Buggy Pirates muttered. "Now only Captain Buggy, Tazzo, and Roz made it to the next round."
"Yeah," the captain agreed and glared over at Cabaji and Mohji who sat up angrily and spouted excuses.
"You were my opponent!" Cabaji yelled.
"He was as tall as a mountain!" Mohji yelled about the giant he had to face. The beast tamer realized he was just making excuses for his embarrassing performance, so he changed the subject, "I can't believe Brother 3 missed Alvida's fight. He's really taking a long time in the bathroom."
"Huh? Yeah you're right," Buggy said out loud. "He was whining about his upset stomach after breakfast all morning. He probably went back to our room."
Gin! Gin! Alvida opened her eyes and watched the man go back to his area, where his crewmates started booing him like most of the crowd. You were too amazed by my beauty that you couldn't bear to see yourself injure my perfect body. She coughed a few times, the slam of the Haki-infused balls in her chest still hurting her.
"Please get off the arena Lady Alvida," the announcer called out from the room above the lake. "We are about to get the next match started."
"Hey Chopper," Luffy called up to the reindeer sitting two rows behind him. Chopper looked down at his captain and Luffy grinned at him, "How long until your match?"
The reindeer opened his mouth, "I don't remember..."
"Will Tony Tony Chopper and Fu please report to the arena," the mystery announcer's voice shouted.
"Well that was weird," Sanji muttered as he looked at Luffy with a confused look. It was almost like their captain knew it was Chopper's turn to go before it was.
"Good luck Chopper," Nami said and gave the small reindeer a hug. Vivi and Robin both said nice things to him as he stood up and started walking down the steps.
"You can do it!" The Franky Family cheered as he walked past. The Dressrosa group saw another of Luffy's friends going and cheered, and the Alabasta team supported one of their saviors. It was when Chopper reached the ledge of the wall over the stone section that he froze and his ears twitched a little.
"Are you serious? That's one of the contestants?"
"This is ridiculous, the little guy is going to get destroyed."
"I thought this tournament was serious."
"He should give up now."
Chopper had great hearing as a reindeer and was getting angrier and angrier. The tiny reindeer started ignoring them and jumped down to the stone section below. He walked between two huge chunks of stone, climbed up another and then stood atop a rock waiting for his opponent.
"Who's this Fu guy?" Nami wondered and looked around, trying to find where the opponent was coming from.
"He can't be any worse than Franky's opponent right?" Usopp whispered.
"Chopper-san is very strong, I'm sure he'll win," Brook agreed,
Robin sighed; she didn't want to freak out the reindeer before his match, but she wondered if she should have warned him beforehand. "Fu, or the Silent Mist Fu," Robin started and the others looked at her. All but for Luffy and Zoro who snapped their heads to the top of the snow section, feeling something weird. Sanji was too distracted by Robin's amazing knowledge to pay attention to the sense he would have noticed otherwise. "Has a bounty of over two hundred million," she finished saying.
"Silent Mist?" Sai asked, overhearing Robin from his seat next to Usopp. "I've heard that name before."
"Which pirate crew is he in?" Nami asked, already dreading the answer.
Robin turned her head towards the area Luffy and Zoro were already watching. They looked at the top of the bleachers behind the ice section, but none of the cloaked figures up there were moving. Kaido's group was sitting calmly, with none of them moving. "Fwew," Usopp said in relief, wiping some sweat from his brow, "I thought for a second that Chopper's opponent was going to be one of those monsters."
"He is," Robin stated and she was no longer looking at the top of that section where there was one more empty seat than before. A small cloud of white was forming over the snow area, almost like a mist.
"It's inside the mist," Zoro stated for the others who couldn't sense it. The countdown started and already every member of the Straw Hats felt a sense of dread coming over them. Good luck Chopper, they all thought.
The reindeer standing on the piece of stone took a deep breath and calmed himself as he stared ahead. Time was running down before it was his turn to fight, and he was ready. He rose his hooves and held them in front of him, I can do this!
A/N Go Chopper! Hey everyone thanks for reading. Chopper is up against another powerful member of Kaido's gang, Fu. Other than the captain himself, I believe this is the final entrant for the Beast Pirates: Rixa, Arborn, Curas, Dello, and now Fu. Telling by the powers of the other fighters, I think it's only fair to think Fu may have a Zoan type... any suggestions? Anyway I hope you enjoyed the fights with Drake and Gin moving on to the next round. Next time we get Chopper's fight!
Lightningblade49
wont be long till people notice fighters are disappearing.
When's Robin fighting?
Robin fought pretty early on in the tourny, she beat up Kumadori (pink haired dude). Looks like Buggy has noticed his friend is gone, but the stupid clown is too focused on the rapid continuous fights to notice... perhaps on purpose ;p, maybe. Thanks for reviewing!
CrazyLittleTiger
Oh ho so you people think your actions won't be giving you any problems eh, weeellll your wrong sadly for you you mysterious group of whatever the strawhats take care of their friends and aquitances (because i wouldn't call mr.3 a friend but at the same time he's also aided and fought along side luffy so yeah aquaintance.) and so yeah ya'alls gonna get you buts handed to you for hurting someone they know.
Also i think i know what this group of people are trying to do *cough* wait for people to die or be close to death then finish them off and wait for the convenient fruit nearby to become a devils fruit so you can sell it or eat so you can take over the world or some shit *cough* *cough* Huh what? didn't say anything, nope. *shifty eyes*
Oh yeah, Luffy is going to be pissed when he figures out what happened to Mr. 3! The other straw hats probably still think of him as an enemy, even if Luffy was happy to see him earlier, but they follow the captain and the captain is going to be angry. Won't say much about your prediction... but nice ;). XD Thank you! Thanks again to everyone who read and reviewed this story. 'Till next time!
