Disclaimer: One Piece is the property of Eiichiro Oda. Many of the characters in this story are property of me. Do not use this story or its characters without my permission. Thank you.
"Please begin fighting now" Gretta calmly demanded. "I'm becoming swiftly bored."
"How should we do this?" Araly whispered to Colleen.
"I..I-I don't know" Colleen nervously said. "I suppose, we should maybe...attack?"
"I mean" Araly said "how can we separate them so we can fight individually?"
"Oh" Colleen said. "Well, I can do that." Colleen activated her cannon with a quick motions of her hand. She shot her arm straight out and glared at her target. While everyone was distracted with the evil and menacing metal framework that was assembling around Colleen's arm, Araly snared her adversary's leg and started running away. Gretta wasn't fooled.
"Where is she going?" Gretta asked herself.
"It's this terrible demon magic again" Rupert snarled. He was intently focused on Colleen and her self-preparing arm cannon. Araly got enough distance to complete her retreat into the line of finely cut brush that separated the stone courtyard and the lush garden. "Sir Edmund!" the king shouted. "Stop her before she can activate her terrible magics!" Colleen was already ready. Her plating was fully assembled and the turbines were spun. Before Edmund could arm himself to fight the girl, she pressed the nozzle of her cannon against his pearly armor and dented it with a massive blast of condensed air. Edmund flew just above the ground for a good many meters before digging his heels and shield into the dirt. He slowed to a stop and noticed the mass of steam billowing off of Colleen's arm. Beyond that, he also noticed how drastically the shy girl's face had changed. Her brow was now fully furrowed and her mouth was in a deep scowl. All the tender, feminine warmth had left her eyes and left them dark, foreboding, and most of all demonic.
"HEY!" Araly called. The unguarded Morgan looked over and saw some suspicious activity in the garden. Araly had tied the other end of the long rope attached to Morgan's ankle to a tree she weighed down. "We're fighting too." Araly cut the tree loose and let it snap back up. Morgan was dragged off her feet and thrown into the garden grounds. Araly, feeling proud of herself, yanked a cord and cut the rope holding Morgan loose as well, which made the seamstress fly even farther without getting snared again. However, that was a huge underestimation on Araly's part.
"You're a tricky little whelp, here" Morgan pleasantly growled. She flipped through the air, saulted back onto her feet and landed with a mighty thudding 'BOOM!'. The villagers were impressed by both survival acts and cheered in both directions. Colleen was shut off to the world, now in a state of animistic uncaring just like her captain's perpetual attitude, and she ignored the cheering. She clutched her cannon, steaming from the combined properties of the heat and the cooling agent in her bandages, and prepared to charge it again.
"What beauteous rage!" Edmund exclaimed. He prepared his sword and his shield and started rushing in. "This warm pounding in mine chest, this feeling of comfort all over, could it be? Could it really be? This girl, with the enchanting face, has smitten me!" Of course, as Edmund was openly declaring his thoughts, the people shared gasps of terror. One shot and the with knight had already fallen? "Oh yes, I am smitten...by her beauty! This is love!" Now the villagers and guards were silent. Everyone had a look of general disgust, except the competent Emily who blinked innocently. The Tengufly on her shoulder translated the assumed message to Ramone, who adapted the same look of disbelief.
"Hey" Bard said to him. "Hey, you okay?"
"No" Ramone quickly answered.
Back in the garden, Araly was preparing her next traps while keeping a steady eye on Morgan.
"It's all useless, love!" Morgan shouted. "Just give in, here, and I'll go easy on ya!"
"Unacceptable" Gretta called. "She must suffer for being. You must end her." Araly got angry and turned around mid-dash.
"No one asked you!" she shouted. As she spun back around she threw a loop of orange and black patterned cloth at Morgan.
"Wha's 'is, here?" Morgan asked, catching the rope. The glyphed paper that Araly tied into the rope activated, and its properties forced the rope to warp and constrict Mogan's arm like a snake. The crushing pressure was unexpected, and forced Morgan into a brief panic.
"Got you now!" Araly said. She took out a shock-yellow lasso and twirled it at Morgan. The initial shock of the unorthodox attack had worn off now, so the manly seamstress was able to dodge. Araly yanked the lasso back and prepared it once again for a quick snare. Morgan took the moment to get on the offensive as well. She took out some beaters, tools that resembled bulky fly-swatters, and tossed them at Araly. Araly stopped spinning her lasso and rolled out of the way, just in time to dodge the beaters that were now set deep into the stone walls of the castle perimeter.
"So powerful!" a woman in the stands exclaimed. "If we had beaters that strong our clothes would glisten so brightly!"
"Verily!" another woman agreed. Emily was getting star-crossed. She couldn't decide on who to watch being dead-center of the stands. She had no bias aside from the fighters of her homeland, but the events so far were too amazing for her to want to ignore either fight. On one side, the lieutenant of the Demon with the devilish, destructive arm against a shining white knight whose beauty was said to shame the sky itself. On the other side, a crafty young woman with no remarkable physical skill who fought with similar magic that the Paladins had been seen using before against a huge and strong looking woman with a whole loom strapped to her back. The decision confused her until she became dizzy and had to shake her head.
"I cannot sit and think like this" Emily whispered to herself. "I must do my best to view the best of both my kingdom's great and righteous fighters!"
"No" Gretta said directly to her. Gretta was lower down to the ground now and addressed the uncertain Emily eye to eye. "Watch the girl fighting with cloth. She'll be much more entertaining." Emily, unsure of how to respond in respectful and timely fashion, gulped and nodded.
"Y-Yes your highness" she finally said. Gretta ordered her knights to use a pulley and raise her back up, leaving Emily and the rest of the villagers a little bewildered by her presence.
Inside the castle, Kura was still fighting against the surprised Rez who was defending the still gravely injured Zan. Kura attacked with syringes filled with a mysterious green fluid and surgery scalpels. Rez countered with his fancy short-swordplay and kept the threat of point-blank fire on the field as well.
"Dodge!" Zan ordered. Kura made a thrust with her needle. Rez hopped and let her thrust the fluid into the stone wall. It dissolved, showing just how deadly that mystery liquid was. Rez made a threatened grunt and backed up. "Now, attack!" Zan ordered.
"SHUT UP!" Rez roared. "You're a horrible coma actor! Just shut up!"
"I'm not supposed to be in a coma, am I?" Zan asked. Kura came charging again, this time with four scalpels in one hand ready to throw. Rez had to decide, and quickly, between attacking to get her out of an offensive stance or defending and risking melting by dangerously strong acid. The mind of a duelist kicked in and time, to Rez, seemed to stop.
Okay Rez began, I think I have about a half second to think before she actually attacks. She has four knives in one hand, and probably more on her. Considering the pattern of her attacks up to now, I'd think she'll just use the knives to distract my guard then try to inject me. She may not even try to inject me. She can use the liquid in the syringe as a projectile as well, then predict which way I'll dodge. Okay, in that case, I need to take my environment into account. To my immediate left there's a bed, which I can tip over as a distraction and for cover. To my right there's more open space before I hit a bed or the wall again. Zan's in my line of sight, so shooting might be a bad choice, considering of course that these rubber slugs will rebound into his face or his balls...that would hurt! Okay, so as a failsafe I'll fire, but I need to be exact. The wall I would hit would ricochet the bullet almost straight at me, and unfortunately I'm not quick enough to dodge it!
Decision time! Almost a half second had passed and Rez had his plan. Within that instance, he calculated every step he needed to make a plan. In an instant he leaped to the right and dodged, as he predicted, a syringe thrust and squirt. The terrible liquid splashed on the floor and burned small craters in the old stone structure. Kura, in her rage, threw her knives and let them sink into the bed. Rez jumped back up and jabbed her with the butt of his gunblade in the gut. She keeled over and coughed into her mask, the he made the finishing blow to the back of her head with his elbow. Kura fell down, incapacitated, and Rez retrieved the toxic syringe carefully from her hand.
"40" my ass" Rez declared. "I'm pretty good at proportions. I'd say you're 39" at best."
"Can you worry about something prevalent for once?" Zan sarcastically asked. "Be a good moron and go watch Araly's fight for me."
"What's that, patient?" Rez said, raising the still half-full syringe so Zan could see it. "You need a shot of painkillers? Well, what kind of nurse would I be to deny you? Hehehe..." Rez menacingly approached the scared Zan with the intention of sticking and melting him. Zan panicked and started groaning.
"Cut that out, man" Zan demanded. "Really! Seriously! You know once I'm out of traction I'll kill you!"
"Ah," Rez grunted "I'm just kidding. Don't be such a baby." Rez tossed the syringe into a distant sink and let it shatter. He was tempted to see if the sink had melted, but a loud crackling and corroding sizzle confirmed his temptations soon enough.
"Ugggh..." groaned someone around a dark corner.
"There's someone else here?" Zan noticed.
"Sounds like it" Rez said. "Stay here. I'll check it out."
"No" Zan growled sarcastically "let me come with you! I don't want you getting hurt and winding up in a hospital bed! Jackass." Rez smiled and marched around the corner anyway.
He saw an adjoining, private section of beds that were separated by thick, mobile dividers. There were no windows to illuminate the room, just poorly built lamps that connected to offline electric Den Den Mushis. Rez kept walking into the darkness, searching for what looked like a body, and stopped in front of the middle bed. Sprawled out on it was a restlessly shifting figure of huge, sturdy build.
"You...?" the body groaned. "You!"
"Me?" Rez repeated.
"Please, help" the body said again, reaching out with an injured hand. "Cut my IV, I beg you."
"What?" Rez said. Suddenly, his superior vision came into focus. In the minimal light Rez could see the obvious frame of none other than Reginald Drakengard, the knight he had just gotten done beating down earlier! "What...what the hell!?" Rez pulled his gunblades and aimed them at Drakengard's face.
"I can explain everything, young man" Drakengard in a reasonable voice. For some reason, Rez wanted to believe him, but something was keeping him from completely submitting to that thought. His fingers wouldn't even touch the triggers.
"Why should I believe you?" Rez demanded.
"I assume that idiot nurse blabbed something about an experiment?" Drakengard ventured. "I know all about it, because it's my experiment. If you can release me I can make sure you and your friends make it safely off this accursed island."
"Hmm..." Rez hummed.
"REZ!" Zan shouted from his bed. "Get ready!" Kura, now conscious and angry, came around the corner with a limp and two hands full of syringes.
"You've had your fun, boy" Kura growled, "now get away from that man!"
"Oh not her" Drakengard groaned.
"You shut up!" Kura blared. Rez aimed at her, unafraid of the consequences, and glared her down with unmoving eyes of stern murder. The eyes of a Duelist. "I'm going to enjoy getting your measurements, kid! Get ready to die!" Rez redireacted his right arm and threw his gunblade to slice apart the IV that binded Drakengard to his bed. Once free, the dangerously built man hopped out of bed in his armored legguards and grieves toward the angered nurse. He glared daggers at her until she got scared and started backing off. Then he grabbed a book from nearby and tossed it with unseen speed and amazing accuracy to smash her right between the eyes. She fell over, kicked her legs up dramatically, and blacked back out.
"We should tie her up" Drakengard said.
"She's trouble, eh?" Rez asked. Still, he smirked at the view he had, despite the poor light...
