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.


In the stone-cobbled courtyard of the stately castle, Colleen and Edmund fought on. She had armed her mighty gauntlet of tangled metal bands and a smoldering-hot cannon nozzle. The mechanics of her gun, the 'Hellcat', had to allow at least two minutes of cooling for another burning bullet to be fired. She had fired three bullets in succession at the spry and agile knight who dodged them all at the expense of his shield.

"The royal crest" Edmund noted "is besmirched. Fie! Beauteous or not, I shall smite thee!" Colleen simply rose her arm, with a veil of steam following it, and Edmund cowered behind his shield. Then she fell over and caught herself with the tip of her metal arm cannon. It made the old and cold rocks sizzle and crack open upon contact. The heat had exhausted her completely, as the heavy sweat on her brow was evidence.

Oh no! She silently exclaimed with fright. All the moisture in my body is evaporating. Hellcat is too hot for me to handle this much. I need to change my strategy before I collapse... Colleen started lurching slowly forward, then broke out in a speedy shamble. The steam continued pouring off her arm as she advanced. Edmund dug his shield into the ground and rolled away from it. Collen continued toward the shield and swung her metal-braced arm at it, sending it in a dangerous arc toward Edmund. Edmund looked up and saw the sharp edge of his shield spinning at him, then he looked down at the demon girl glaring through a cloud of white smoke.

Oh dear! Edmund exclaimed. Now I am in quite the predicament. If I don't somehow evade both danger sat once, one my shield and two the lady demon, I will be rightly thrashed! I can't stand around and ponder, however, I must act! So, out of sheer desperate inspiration, Edmund grabbed his sword with both hands and backed up a few steps. Colleen started running at him, and as his shield came down Edmund wound his sword back even further.

"Mohohoho!!!" Rupert heartily laughed to the embarrassment of his daughter. "Sir Edmund was a fine choice, Gretta my daughter. Look how brilliant of a genius he is! Tactical strategy in the midst of combat!"

"Who wouldn't do that?" Gretta skeptically asked. "If you have a situation like that, that's the only thing you can do."

"Really?" Rupert asked. Edmund swung his sword and his his shield at Colleen. Not taking into account the wind that still picked up or the wind-resistance factors that a kite shield would have, Edmund's shield missed its mark and flew into the audience stands. No one was harmed but the king and his ego.

"Of course" Gretta said "you need to be smart to use that kind of strategy."

"Oh bullocks" Edmund shivered. Colleen drew back her arm and then punched it forward, the heat coming off and hitting Edmund as he side-stepped the attack. Collen had to run a few more steps forward as the momentum of her punch was greater than her actual weight, and Edmund used the opportunity as best he could. He charged in while her back was turned to him and prepared to make a thrust with his sword.

"The day is mine after all!" Edmund called. Colleen wrenched her arm off the ground and threw it behind her, just barely missing Edmund's face. The knight was so relieved and terrified that he forgot to stop running and tripped over the metal of Colleen's arm. Colleen retrieved her arm and moved away in skips. She was panting hard, nearly dehydrated and completely exhausted from her blind berserk of burning bullets before.


"I can't..." she she said with a breath, "I can't keep going..."

"Really?" Edmund asked. "You admit defeat then?" He used his sword to prop himself up and readjusted his helmet to see out of it again. "I misjudged you, then. I assumed, although you are beautiful, that a demon like yourself would not know better to fight against a righteous man such as I. Lo! Humble villagers, the day has already won! I claim victory as of now!" The crowd cheered for their knight, despite the near-brush with death some of them had by his foolish hand. Emily applauded but she didn't smile, and the bug on her shoulder was starting to unnerve her.

Why does it not move? Emily asked, trying hard not to stare at the thing. Is it attracted to me? To my pure flesh? Could this be some evil demon bug from that devilish man!? Perhaps...but if it be such an insect I dare not bother it. It may hold some evil powers that could injure me worse then my dear brother...

"NO!" Araly shouted. She was hanging back in the garden, now standing at the top of a tree with her ropes as support. "Colleen, think about your honor as a pirate! Think about your duty to your captain! Colleen, don't let this windbag get one over on you!!!" Colleen took her friend's kind advice to heart and finally found the courage and strength to stand upright.

"Don't listen to the wench" Edmund instructed to the audience. "She is obviously at wits end! Seeing her fellow outcasted monster fall at the hands of the righteous is too much for her feeble mind to comprehend. Besides that, by my standards as a royal knight, I do not find her beautiful at all-"

"SHUT UP!" Colleen roared. She made a reeling roundhouse punch to the back of his head with her Hellcat hand and sent him tumbling across the grounds into the broken statue in the center of the yard.

"Nice shot!" Araly cheered. The audience started grumbling with disapproval and dismay.

"She has no honor" a woman declared.

"What a cursed fiend!" a man exclaimed. Edmund got up shakily with sword still ready and a hand over his naked face.

"Now see what you have done!" Edmund declared with a growl. Colleen stood her ground with a sternly watching face and tensed the fingers inside her cannon. She knew, by now, it was ready and safe to fire again. "You have marred my perfect beauty! I am livid, nay outrageously infuriated by this upset! How darest thou, how DARE indeed! Look at what you have done..." he said as he slowly removed his hand. The audience leaned in while Colleen stayed totally focused. Araly, out of pure curiosity, used her telescopic paper binoculars to get a close up of Edmund's face. He had a plethora of lengthy stitches, big eyes, thick eyebrows, a bulbous and beaked nose, a wispy mustache, a cleft chin and crooked teeth; all of which made ironic by the fact he concluded his vindictive declaration "...to my wondrous beauty!!!"

Jaws dropped everywhere. Even Ramone, watching from afar, made a face of utter disgust. Bard's immediate reaction was a loud and very pained grunt of "ARGH!" when he saw that he had tied again in their continued game.

Did I... Coleen thought with some guilt in her inner voice, did I do all that!?!?

"I say" Rupert said with his jaw far down from his face, "I did not expect that to happen."

"Of course not" Gretta said. She expected it to happen and was bored with the obvious outcome. Araly was the only one in the courtyard making noise, as she was laughing loudly and hysterically from her tree. She nearly fell off of it, she was laughing so hard.


Inside the castle, Rez and Zan followed behind the muscular Reginald Drakengard as they all made their way through the corridors and stairwells of the huge castle. Zan struggled to keep up but did so anyway.

"You sure you don't need a hand?" Rez asked. "We've got a lot of stairs to go."

"So tell me" Zan began to Reginald, "just how aware are you about the 'Ghost' on this island?"

"Ramone Cervantes" Reginald growled. "Yes, I actually remember fighting him a year ago. He and his crew came here, docking right at the village, and tried to declare war on us all. I knew who he was, of course, but because of the drug I could only watch myself beat him and his crew of pirates back onto their ship and then route them into the woods by snapping off their rudder."

"No wonder he hates you guys" Rez pointed out.

"He deserves what he got" Reginald said sternly. "He's a terrible man, trust me. His record as an outlaw is more gruesome than either of you really know, and he has a loyal crew to follow him in his carnage."

"I've heard a little about him" Zan admitted. "I don't know just how he escaped the Gaol though...not that I want to." Rez glanced at Zan as he ran, then turned forward. His curiosity about the matter was beginning to bug him.

"There they are!" a random guard shouted. Reginald and the guys dismounted the spiral steps and came into a huge formal room with dusty chandeliers and many broken pillars supporting the artisan-carved handrails. They were on the second floor, a sort of balcony with two sets of long stairs leading up against the wall to their level from below. Several guards met them, standing in the middle of the large balcony with spears armed. "Lady Kura was right! Drakengard has broken loose his binds!"

"Didn't we tie her up?" Rez asked.

"Not tight enough, apparently" Reginald growled. "HEY! Move out! Don't you have something more important to do?"

"Tis true!" a guard quivered. "He hath gone mad with power! We cannot quell him!" It all came back to him now. Reginald Drakengard was feared as a super-powerful monster. Reginald grew an agitated smile across his sharp-bearded face.

"Shut thy face, guardsman!" the apparent captain of the guards yelled. "We must cease him and his fellow heretics 'fore they corrupt the righteous people outside and disrupt the royal tournament!"

"Tournament!?" Reginald growled. Suddenly a vein in his head snapped and his face contorted from that of a kind and aged man to the monstrous evil that was Drakengard, sans the smile. Now he just looked pissed. "What tournament!?" The guards simultaneously froze up out of fear and Reginald started running forward. He clenched his fists tight and rolled his shoulders forward as he ran.

Six guards Reginald thought as he approached. They're in a sloppy, loose formation. The ground floor is fifteen feet below, approximately. They won't get up if I can get them down there forcefully. To his end, Reginald quickly turned left towards the wall and stopped, letting his arms swing forward. The guards broke formation to get away, but the enthusiastic leader remained with his spear drawn. Reginald turned with a mighty stomp toward the guard, paralyzed him with fear, and then raised his other leg high off the ground.

"...eep!" the guard squeak.

"GET OUT OF HERE!!!!" Reginald viciously roared. He delivered a mighty, full-bodied kick. His jaw clenched and moved his whole head forward. He was nearly lifted off the ground and was sent ahead a step as the guard left his foot and was thrown into the far, far away opposite wall with a huge thud. He groaned and slid down the stone wall while Reginald planted his feet down to the solid floor again. He took a moment with his head down and breathed while Rez and Zan looked at the poor guard that lay broken across the ballroom. Their heads slowly drifted back with awe at the surprised Reginald in the center of the elevated stage. Reginald glanced, then turned to the pirates and pointed at what happened with a goofy grin and chuckle.

"You can't be serious" Zan groaned.

"Are all strong dudes" Rez lowed with anger "incredibly stupid, or is it just the ones we know?"

"They're all either stupid" Zan said "or evil. I'd choose stupid for my side."

"This guy's both though" Rez said. The guards were astounded and totally fear-stricken. Reginald shrugged his shoulders and rotated his head with a sharp breath.

"Now then" he began with a gruff voice and steel-sharp eyes, "who's next? Kurururu...." Just like that, the alternate personalities of the scientist fused. The battle-manic monster Drakengard and the stern and proper man Reginald had become one, all the raw strength and berserk power with the mind of a genius. A truly formidable adversary! Thank god, for now, he is on the side of the Buster Pirates.