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.


Rezland, Zan, Reginald, Rupert, Araly, Gretta and Bard. All the major players were here, assembled by some radical twist of ill-provoked fate into the castle courtyard. Rupert was filled with an appalled and surprised scorn to see Reginald, the age-old object of his disgrace, alive and kicking ass. Rezland and Zan were relieved to see their captain, although Rez less so. Araly was fighting off narcolepsy now that so many surprising and adventurous things were happening all at once, and Gretta was leaning out of her seat in pure enjoyment.

"This is getting good" Gretta said, resting her cheeks in her hands. "I wonder...what will the outcome of this battle be? It's gotten to the point where I honestly cannot tell what will happen anymore!" Bard looked over at his crew mates, whom he hadn't seen in what felt like too long, and then he saw the menacing smile of Drakengard as he looked at them as well.

"You two got out alright!" Reginald said. "I trust you eliminated all the other potential threats!"

"No problem" Rez said. "After all, they were waiting for about twenty years without anything to do. They were bound to be out of shape."

"Oi, oi!" Reginald shouted. "Who says old men can't fight? I'm fifty-five, I kicked both your asses!"

"You look thirty" Zan said weakly. Reginald became bashful and modest.

"Kurururu! Ah, you young people!" he exclaimed.

"Drakengard!" Rupert shouted. "What have you done...?" Reginald looked over and turned his pleasant expression into one of hatred, fully tensing his face his glowering at his twisted former assistant.

"For sixty three" Reginald began, crossing his arms, "that son of a bitch looks alright."

"ORYAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!" Bard shouted. He made a Soru dash into a roundhouse kick straight at Drakengard. The startled man managed to block with his arms out of reflex. Bard moved his leg from outside to inside his arm and hooked it with the back of his knee. Then he slammed his other knee into Reginald's face, unprotected and vulnerable. Once his attack was over Bard flipped off his new enemy onto the ground and hopped back into position to face his crew. "You guys! Awesome! You escaped just in time, and I saved you!" Bard put a fist to his waist and a thumb up high in the air. "Nice Teamwork!!!"

"What teamwork!?" Rez demanded.

"Captain" Zan began "you're doing that thing again."

"Eh?" Bard asked. "What thing?" Reginald got back up from the jarring attack. He looked down at the young man, measured him to be just nearly as tall as himself, then lurched forward to lock him into a full-nelson hold to prevent him from berserking any futher. Bard sensed danger, and just as Reginald extended his arms to wrap under Bard's, Bard jumped in the air and flipped to land on Reginald's back. Then, with a push, he sent Reginald down to the ground and backflipped into a light, hopping pose with his arms pumping freely.

"The stupid thing" Zan finished "that you always do." Reginald got up with a growl.

"What's with him?" he asked. "Does he still see me as an enemy? While he was already fighting against Rupert?"

"Don't worry about that guy" Rez said, grabbing his Hell Tiger by the broad, curved grip. "I can take him out in one shot."

"That I doubt" Drakengard said, pushing himself up with his arms and landing with his legs wide. "I will calm this young man down and reorient him properly. Consider the King to be the final obstacle in bringing back peace to this island!"

"We'll get him in checkmate" Zan promised "sooner than you may want." Reginald nodded, then turned around and began running and roaring at Bard.

"Come on!" he shouted. "Show me what you've got, kid!!!"

"Oh, I will" Bard lowed. As Reginald approached Bard let his body fall backwards. With his arms tensed out to the side as if he was going to grab Bard in a bear hug, Reginald had left his thick body open to attack. Bard kept his arms up to guard with his fists tightly clenched, and simply drifted back while Drakengard loomed over him. Then the ideal moment came, the perfect time for an attack.

"RANKYAKU!" Bard shouted. He made a straight kick to Drakengard's abdomen, a painful, stabbing kick backed with an air-slicing blade. Drakengard felt the pain but ignored it and jerked his body to the side. His left shoulder went back while his right arm was thrown forward with an open palm, smashing Bard into the ground via a powerful hit to the chest. Bard didn't use Tekkai, and felt the full force of the blow as a result. Reginald kept running for a few steps off of his inertia, then stumbled and stopped, holding his gut where a fresh, long bruise appeared. Bard rolled on his back and kicked himself up to his feet.

"That was good" Reginald said. "I had no idea they recruited kids like you! Are they desperate...or are you just that strong?"

"Who?" Bard asked. "Of course I'm strong. Are you talking about the Marines?" Bard raised his left arm up, fist knotted, and held it out to his enemy. His right arm was down, a 'Southpaw' style with a guard and a ready punch. Reginald took his stance as well, one arm straight out with a claw-gripped hand and the other drawn back and wound up tightly with a fist. He profiled his body against Bard, his chest pointing out to the side away from his opponent, and prepared to attack.


While strength met strength, the faith of the audience began to dwindle. Now that the berserk, treacherous Drakengard was fighting off Rupert's original opponent, Rez and Zan were left with distracting the power-mad king until Bard came around. So far they were doing poorly, as Rupert's armor was too tough for Rez's bullets and he was moving too much for Rez to hit him squarely with his cannon. Zan wasn't moving much at all, as his leg wasn't healed and the dirt in the ground contained too much salt for him to easily phase in or out of.

"Come on!" Rez shouted, rapid-firing all the shells he had left at Rupert's exposed skin. The king was quick to block and dodged what he could, staying mobile despite his injuries. I can't use Hell Tiger yet Rez planned. He's moving too much and staying close to the audience stands. I don't want any unwanted casualties out of this battle. Rez made his way to the statue and circled around behind it to reload. Last clip. In a flash he unloaded, reloaded, and the poised his gunblades straight up near his face. He noticed Ramone, still incapacitated on the ground, making labored, growling breaths. I'm sure you fought as best you could, pal. Wait a while before moving...

"Here I am!" Rez shouted, coming out with his guns aiming. Rupert was already upon him, looming over him with a hand reaching for his head.

"Oh, I know!" Rupert called. Rez made a dive backwards and rolled back to his feet, holding one blade over the other with the lower one held sideways. He fired rapidly, all of the bullets sinking into Rupert's armor but not penetrating it. "Mohoho! How utterly useless! My armor can stop a menace like that blond-haired boy, what makes you think mere bullets can harm me?"

"They can't" Rez said. His clips were empty, so he sheathed the blades, stepped back to stand with his side to his enemy, and held up a hand with a finger-gun gesture aimed at Rupert. "Of course, I rarely use regular bullets anyway..." Rupert looked curiously at Rez's confident posture, then he saw his armor. It was disintegrating away, forming large holes and cracks from where the bullets had hit. The strategic placement of those bullets made the armor fall apart and continue dissolving when it hit the ground. Now Rupert's old, gray-haired roughly-cut chest was exposed. Gretta sighed and looked away.

"No one wants to see that" she growled. "Besides, how ridiculous are metal-eating bullets? Metal-eating beetles are fine, I suppose, at least coming from Mr. Demon, but how can bullets corrode metal? This is all getting very, very stupid..." Gretta looked behind her, feeling something strange in the air. From the woods came some stealthily running men dressed in assorted casual garb. All were armed with a sword and a pistol, and each had at least one sheathed and the other in hand or hands. One man, wearing a blue bandana over his head and covering his brow, made some complex military-esque motions to the others and they made a move for the gate.

"Now what?" Gretta asked. "It seems like someone wants to crash our party. How obnoxious..." Araly heard her, though she was barely clinging onto consciousness. Watching Bard move nimbly around the heavy, berserk-fighting Drakengard was exhausting in itself, and feeling the tension of Rez fighting a man a foot taller and three feet wider than he was making her nauseous. Then she saw, or didn't see, Zan. He had apparently disappeared, and strangely so had Ramone's body.

"Huah!" Zan gasped. He busted through the shrubs nearby, where Colleen was laying down, and had Ramone's bloody body draped over his shoulders. Despite his injured ankle he was able to make it so far in such a short amount of time. He dropped Ramone and then fell to his hands, right at the end of the bleachers where Araly sat.

"Zan!" Araly exclaimed. She awoke out of concern and rushed over to him. "Are you alright?"

"Not quite" Zan admitted. "In fact, I'm pretty badly hurt here. I overused my leg, and now it's starting to burn really badly."

"Hang on" Araly said. "I think I still have something for that." Araly searched through her satchel of assorted, enchanted cloth, turning her back on Zan and accidentally revealing her tattoo to him.

"Nice loyalty" Zan said. "Does this mean Bard gets one too?" Araly was confused. She didn't know what Zan was talking about, but his humorous nature was making her uneasy. Araly finally found some bandages with some positive effects and started wrapping Zan's injured parts with them. He felt cool and well, but he still had a sly smirk on his face from what he saw on Araly's back.

"Does Bard get what?" she finally asked. Bard suddenly made an especially loud shout. Araly jumped up at it and saw a smoking pile of dust where he was fighting. Tension started flowing through her, and the tattoo unknowingly worked its chemical magic on her back, soothing her and making her only feel mildly worried about Bard's fate rather than overwhelmingly concerned.


Damn! Bard cursed internally. He's strong! I kinda knew that, but somehow I forgot! Drakengard stomped through the dust and approached Bard, but the spry fighter Soru'd away, and the cloud of dust blew in the direction he left.

Soru Drakengard thought. I haven't seen that since the Cipher Pol escorted us to the island with the prototype...and all those prisoners. Damn Rupert for screwing this up! I'm going to break his jaw and yank out his teeth!

"RAN-kyaku!" Bard shouted from behind. Drakengard turned on his heel and brought his arms up, getting a slight cut across both his huge forearms but blocking the rest of the attack. Bard dashed forward and punched under Drakengard's arms and hit just between his ribs. Drakengard tensed up his gut, dampening the blow, and weaved his fingers together into a single, slamming knotted fist. He raised both his arms up and then threw the balled hands down.

"Tekkai!" Bard shouted. He got hit in the shoulder but barely budged. He did, however, blink before shrugging his body and letting Drakengard's arms float down. Damn. That hurt through my Tekkai! I guess it isn't all that strong yet. Bard grabbed onto Drakengard's forearms, lifted himself up, brought up his bent legs, and Drakengard winced at the pain he knew was coming.

"Soru KICKING!!!" Bard shouted. He began making kicking stomps into Drakengard's chest, each hit making a dull, thudding impact on the old man's already exhausted frame.

"Gah!" Drakengard shouted in pain. He yanked an arm free and swatted Bard away. He hit against the broken edge of the wall and landed, but Drakengard rushed in with a running elbow charge and Bard was thrown back out into the open.

"Those guys" Rez said to himself "are getting out of hand." He was working his way around the battlefield with Rupert fluctuating between full retreat and a heroic charge. He retreated when Rez began drawing out his broadsword-cannon but opted to fight with his still unbroken Sea Stone knuckles when Rez wielded his duel gunblades. The pattern was exhausting and quickly drained Rupert's strength, so now the audience was fearfully watching their king shuffle his way toward the gate to make a hasty escape.

"I have yet more plans for victory!" the king announced, resurrecting just a shimmering shard of his respect. Rez saw his prey cornered and sheathed his smaller blades in favor of drawing out the huge, devastating one. He aimed it forward with one arm and smiled.

"You're finished now, you geezer!" Rez mocked. "Time to join you ancestors!" Rez raised his sword back over his head and behind his back. He would swing it down and power his already powerful cannon ball with the energy of a helm-breaking swing. However, Rupert wouldn't allow that to happen. He tore the gate out of the ground and threw the sharp, metal bars straight at Rez. Startled by the sudden move, Rez jumped away and rolled his way to safety, right at the foot of the bleachers, and got up on his knee in a crouch with his sword dug into the ground beside him. Rupert was in full flight away, running for the nearest noble house.

"There's a guy!" Marco shouted. "Buster Pirates, charge!!!" From the low-cut bushes of the fake house yards and inside the very houses came a roaring, rambunctious army of over thirty pirates. The Buster Pirate crew surrounded their huge target in a wide circle, aiming with pistols and bracing themselves with guns. Marco stood directly behind Rupert, emanating his low energy as a leader among his fellow crewmen and forcing the king to turn around. "Whoever you are, surrender or die!"

"YEEEAAAHHH!!!!!" the full army roared. The audience looked through the spikes of the wall at their king, who was found in a terrible trap, but shame didn't dare to cross their minds. The drug made them absolutely loyal to Rupert Lioncrest, in heart and soul.

'Oh, those knaves!' 'What blakhearted means!' 'They are scoundrels, they are!' 'What twist of cruel fate be this?' 'Escape, O Glorious King!' The crowd continued their soft praises, eventually catching the attention of their pure white princess. Gretta walked up to her throne with her hands gripping something invisible, something she wanted in her hands that was no there.

"Do what you must" Rupert said, proudly standing up, "but leave my people be!" The crowd cheered for their king and jeered the spirit out of the pirates.

"I feel like a villain" one pirate said.

"Well" another answered, "we technically are, but this guy's way too dangerous to let live. Give the word, Marco!"

"Where's Bard?" Marco asked to the wind. "I'm starting to get concerned a little now..." Rupert noticed just how much heart the crew had lost and took his opportunity. He made a short running jump over the pirate line and tumbled into one of the houses. Inside each house was a small armory of weapons hidden in the walls, a defense against invading pirates or worse, the Marines. Rupert knew by color and shape which house held what, and as a precaution he made sure the one closest to the castle gates held the most powerful weapon of all: Strength-enhancers. He opened up a secret compartment in the floor, took out a small kit and opened it. Seven syringes and three bottles of some vicious, light-red liquid. With an evil grin he took all seven syringes, loaded them with the liquid, and injected them into his arm.

"What's going on!?" Rez demanded.

"REEEEEEEZ!" the crew shouted. They were so happy to see a familiar face that they started crying.

"It's the first mate!" a burly man said, forcing Rez to angrily lower his head and scowl. "Where's the captain at? Surely he's finishing the fight!"

"SHUT IT!" Rez demanded, waving his sword around. He turned calmly to Marco and gave a demanding look.

"Some huge old dude" Marco said "is in that building."

"Tell me that sooner" Rez said. "Clear the way!!!" The crew gave Rez a clean path for his cannon to enter the house and hopefully blow Rupert into bits and chunks. He was weakened and sluggish from the constant battling and excitement, his old heart unable to take so much rigorous punishment. "It'll only take one shot" Rez said, preparing to fire. He stepped forward, brought his sword around to his side, then started swinging. He made another step forward, planting his feet, and fired in mid swing. The house blew apart in a huge fireball of glowing dust.


"Oh, KIIING!!!" the crowd shouted. Gretta was...unamused. Rez sheathed his sword and glanced up at her with a hot glare. He knew that something was up about her as well, her emotionless eyes fixated on him.

"...Mmmm...Mohohohoho!!!" That mad cackling, that booming low laughter, it came from the dust cloud. Rez turned with a shocked glare at the clearing dust. The rest of the crew backed away and hid behind their markedly strong first mate. Rupert had grown, obviously, as his shadow was nearly twice as big as before. "Eight years I've worked on this" he began. "Eight years I have devoted to this, the perfect serum of strength enhancement! Now, witness the power of the Lioncrest legacy!!!" Rupert's hair had grown out into a mane and his beard came down now to his waist. His chest expanded out two-fold its previous width with muscle. His arms had grown disgustingly large without losing their flexibility. His legs became thicker but not longer, and the metal around them was stretched from the growth. He had become a monster, mad with power!

Despite the years she had been alive with this man, even Gretta was shocked to see her father in such a horrific state. Her face finally expressed a readable emotion: fear, and the audience shared that expression with her...