I'm not dead.
So, hey dear readers, how are things going? Have you all had some happy festivities this year? I had and I hope you all did too!
You know, To me the days have been passing just like a blur, I still felt like it was yesterday that I posted the last chapter, it didn't really felt like almost three months.
Also, have you guys saw the name of Kaido's devil fruit? I kinda expected it to be from the Ryu-Ryu/Dragon-Dragon series, but thinking about it now, it kinda makes sense to be called Uo-Uo/Fish-Fish, it fits the theme of Wano by referring to the myth where a carp would swim up a waterfall, cross the dragon gate and become a dragon.
My OC's devil fruit will still remain the Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Model: Lightning Dragon, he looks like a western dragon and as such fit more with the other fruits in this category.
By the way, one of you asked me through a PM if there was any pic of Lucas in his hybrid and full-form. I never ordered any art so there is no image that depicts exactly what I had imagined of him, but I did found some pic that came very close, I put their pins on my profile, so if anyone else that wanted to have an idea of how he looks in his draconic forms just need to go there.
Keep in mind to use what I wrote as a base, and that he may change through the course of the story.
Now before I leave you all with the longest chapter I have ever written, a few guest reviews:
Guest (Ch.14 Oct 3): A ancient devil fruit for Torlo or a devil fruit for Khan that lets him turn into a gun? I never thought about that, don't think I will do it, but will leave your idea noted on the side.
Guest (Ch.04 Oct 3): I agree with you in that giving a Haki, even only the observation one, would make him one of the biggest threats on this side of the time-skip. But like I said in previous chapters, his devil fruit already makes him very strong, even now when he just began to scratch the power of his fruit he is probably already one of the strongest being on the South Blue.
While the idea is tempting, I will not give him Haki now because it would make him too powerful, he will gain in the future, but not now (To be honest he already showed some swallow signs of one of them)
Guest (Ch.14 Oct 25): Whow, Another one wanting an ancient or even mythical Zoan for Torlo? My plan initially was to turn him into one of those super strong non-fruit users, but after many suggestions, I'm starting to have second thoughts.
As I said earlier, don't really plan on doing that, but will write it down for the case of a possible future change of mind.
DISCLAIMER: I don't know if I should do this or not but whatever, I don't own anything here apart from my OC's.
May have grammar errors
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"I missed this!"
The now humanoid dragon Lucas flew above Mel Island while blissfully immersed in what is now his favorite feeling.
High in the sky, the cold night wind blowing at his scales gave him a sense of thrill, peace, and freedom.
Flying had long become his favorite hobby and a literal part of him, not having stretched his wings for a week had left them with a certain itch.
"The last few days I got busy trying to get used to my new routine inside the Marine, only now I'm having this time for myself"
Closing his wings he began to dive down from the sky while in the same time doing a spin, the wind picking up speed around him as he pierced through a cloud in his way.
The dragon vanished inside the cloud, completely engulfed by the white immensity.
In his hybrid form Lucas is undoubtedly big, even in this world where very tall people can appear he is definitely a cut above the rest and can be called a behemoth in two legs, but even so, the clouds that hover in the sky can still dwarf him.
Moments later his figure bursted from below the cloud, his big momentum dragged a part of the cloud in a white trail behind him.
Swoosh!
Stopping the spin and opening his wings he made an arc back up, the change of direction was fast, but done with a naturalness worthy of a being made to rule the skies.
"Roar!"
Letting out a happy draconic roar the young dragon made a turn and began to fly over to the town.
Thanks to the merchant routes nearby Mel Island was able to develop quite a big town for its size, one which is quite bustling during the day with many people walking for and forth doing many things. During the night, though, the town is not as bustling.
Most businesses in town will close for the day when it gets too late, so at that moment apart from some exceptions, like bars that still run their business deep into the night, most places around the town had already begun or are already closed for the day.
The places that do business at night tend to be close to one another, at night when the majority of other businesses are closed they form small hubs of night activities in some parts of the town.
One of these hubs is where you could find a bar quite famous on the island.
With a mix of fancy looks and a very good but affordable drink menu made, the Daybreak one of the favorite spots in Mel Island to those that like some night activities. They're both people that are from the island, and those that came from outside, that could be found in many groups around the bar chatting, drinking, or in general just having a good time.
'Hmm…'
While they laughed and enjoyed their time, a being that many people thought existed only in myths flew silently above their heads. His eyes that seemed to contain a lightning storm swept the place as the being watched with great interest the movement of the people below.
...
Fifteen minutes passed with the mythical being going around unnoticed by all… by all except for just one person.
"Huh?"
A twenty-something woman wearing a very nice jacket was sitting at one of the tables in the outside area of the Daybreak, chatting with some of her friends while enjoying their girl-night. A time later she didn't knew why, but she felt like a strong gaze passed over her, more strange was that she felt it coming from above.
Lifting her head without thinking much about it she saw the form of something that many, she included, thought to only exist inside fantasy books 'Did I really just saw a dragon flying by?'
"What's wrong Emely?" asked one of her friends, a tall long-brown-haired woman, after seeing her friend staring at the sky with a strange look. She lifted her head and looked in the same direction but didn't saw anything strange in the night sky "Did you saw something up there?"
"It was nothing" stripping her gaze from the sky Emely eyed the red fruit drink on her hand with a wary look. Some thinking later she put the drink down on the table "I think I had enough drinks for today"
"What's wrong girl? You only took a few sips!"
"More reason for me to stop drinking for today"
"?"
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...
"Hmm… interesting how each Island can be different from one another"
Having already flown away from the Daybreak bar Lucas was completely unaware of the fact that his passage had unintentionally changed the course of the night for the woman named Emely and her friends. At that time the young dragon had already flown to another part of the town.
After leaving the Daybreak bar area Lucas had flown to one of the business parts of the town, but this time instead of staying in the air gazing at things from above, Lucas decided to take advantage of the lack of people in the area to go down to the ground.
Doing a quick eye search he locked in one of the streets and began to fly down.
Swhoossh!
Landing in the street Lucas looked at the flying leaves around him, the wind created by his wings scattered some of them that had fallen from nearby trees "Overall, not a bad landing if I say so myself"
With him being a dragon flight had become a part of him, and during his time in the Unknown Island Lucas had learned to really enjoy flying. But despite his love for it Lucas soon discovered to his chagrin, and to Garp's and Khan's amusement, that taking off was surprisingly easy but landing his draconic body back down was not.
Thanks to his inner dragon he did have some notion of what to do, but to put that to practice and get his dragon body to land on the ground without him crashing, or creating a giant crater, still took some training. Thankfully for him while landing was harder than taking off, it was not that much harder, so in the end, it didn't take that many days of training to get the hang of it.
"Now, let me see how this town looks from the ground"
Looking around a little he decided to walk down the streets.
Because Lucas was still in his hybrid form anyone that by chance walked into that street at that time, would have found themselves seeing the memorable scene of a four and a half meters tall humanoid dragon taking a casual stroll down the street.
His emotions at that moment are similar to those of a little kid that was visiting another city for the first time in his life. The different designs used on the buildings in the city are different from what he was used to seeing in his hometown on Dragon Island.
"I'm finally walking around another town after so many years! Almost forgot how a big town looks like. I love Dragon Island, is my home and no equal exists as far I'm concerned, but things still got duller after so many years stuck there" said Lucas in a happy tone as he looked around curiously "I wanted to do this on Marineford Town, but in the end, I didn't get the chance"
Being on the same Island as the Marine Headquarters allowed Marineford Town to become a very large and prosperous town. It's not just a home to families of the Marines, is an genuine town with commerce, schools, entertainment, restaurants and every other thing a town of it's should have.
If not for the strict regulations and some other obvious things, Marineford Town would have a way bigger population by now.
…
Walking through the darkness of the street with mighty steps Lucas at some point took notice of a store with a stylish pink and green front, stopping in front of the store he tilted his head forward a little and took a peek inside through the reinforced glass window.
Without many lighposts around, the only real illumination in that area came from the light falling from the moon.
Trying to see anything at the store would be hard for a normal person, but Lucas's dragon eyes worked very well in low light environments, as such, to him the darkness in the store basically posed almost no hindrance.
"It's a clothes store, Hmm… The pieces on sale here are quite good, that brand over there can even be found in the Grand Line. Mom had bought a dress from them... but I'm pretty sure she hadn't paid THIS much for it" he winced at the price tag 'I knew things from the Grand Line would have a salty price here on the Four Blues, but I didn't though it would be like this'
Shaking his head Lucas stepped away from the storefront, because of his shock he became a little absent-minded and almost unintentionally smashed the glass of the window with his tail.
Trying to forget what he just saw he came to the end of that street where he walked out into an adjacent one to the left that was larger
"It looks like this is some market street…" The large bricked street was empty at the moment, but by looking at the trash scattered around he could tell how busy it looked during the day.
Walking down some dozen meters on the street Lucas arrived at a small public square.
...
Crash!
When Lucas was about to step on the public square he heard something breaking the silence of the night, his face tensed a little and by reflex, his head turned to the right in the direction of the sound.
'Miau!'
A cute looking stray cat was inside a nearby trash can, likely searching for food, when he approached the cat was given a big fright. Scared out of his mind by the mythical being's presence the stray cat tried to run away, but in the hurry, he ended up knocking down the trash can, hence the sound.
"it's just you" Lucas relaxed seeing that it was only a cat, then chuckling a little he was about to walk away and leave the stray cat alone when something caught his attention "Huh?"
Sniff! Sniff! Sniff!
Raising his head up the young Monkey D. sniffed the air around a few times before turning his dragon head down at the same direction the cat had fled to "There are three people nearby … "
Following the scent down the street, Lucas eventually found himself in front of what appeared to be an antique shop.
The three-story-high building was bigger than most other buildings around, it was on the corner of the street and it sported a simple, but classy design that was quite charming.
Lucas did not stand there in front of the antique shop for a long time, following the scent he made a turn at the corner and walked just a few meters before he found something that caught his attention.
A tall iron gate was at the entrance of an alley
At that moment the gate was pushed open and a comically large lock, almost certainly the one that was used to keep the gate close, was in the ground broken.
"What we have here?"
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Grace Street, Mel Island – Forty minutes earlier
Grace Street during the day would have a somehow good amount of people walking forth and fro.
Many would go there to visit the famous spots on it like the Mel Book Store, or the Antique Roser at the end of the street. While others would just use it as a path to arrive at other important places nearby, like the street forty-five that connects this part of town to the harbor.
Step Step Step
Step Step Step
Suddenly the faint sound of steps came and broke the silence of the street. Three figures surged from the end of the street, in rushed steps, the trio walked through the darkness until they arrived before an alley, a tall iron gate was in the entrance blocking the path.
"Give me some light" said the first figure with a deep but young voice.
The second figure stirred a little in his place before picking something from inside a bag, seconds later he used what he had picked to produce some light at the gate.
The light pushed the darkness on that part of the street aside and revealed the appearance of the three figures.
The first figure that just talked looked like a very tall and fit young man, the second one that was with the light was a lanky man, and the third figure was a stout bearded man. All three of them wore full-face black masks to hide their identity and had tool belts on their hips.
Although comical, the stereotypical thief masks did quite a good job of obscuring their identity, a job that was all completely ruined by the clothes they wore. Shirts of unusual designs and dark pants, although not that bad looking, they are something that anyone at first glance could tell are their normal, everyday clothes.
The bearded man that was in the back of the trio saw what the lanky man was using to create light and became confused "Hey man, are you really holding an old lamp?"
"What you said?" the fit young man, that was apparently the head of the trio, was in the front checking something on the gate turned around to the lanky man with a frown "Why are you holding an old lamp? Where's the flashlight?!"
Hearing the question the lanky man could only make an Oops-kinda smile "I lost it yesterday on a bet, so I just picked this one from a house on my way here"
"Are you serious?"
The fit young man gave the man an intense glare, at the same time the bearded man put his hand over his mouth to help contain his laugh.
In the end, the young man just shrugged and turned back to the gate "Tch Anyway, this is the place. Get rid of this lock and get us inside!" The other two nodded.
Picking a very big bolt-cutter from his tool belt the stout bearded man then stepped forward and came to the gate. With the tool's head close to the lock he tensed his muscles a little before clamping with all his might.
Brake!
The comically large lock held at first, the bearded man was forced to put even more strength to the point he began to sweat. His effort was paid though when the lock eventually fell to the ground broken.
"Oshh… What tough li'l fucker!" he was huffing tiredly, his arms gleaming under the lamp's light thanks to the sweat that was not dripping from it "Where they got this?"
"No idea"
"I should buy one of these for my house"
"My thoughts exactly"
"Cut it you two!"
Having dealt with the gate's lock the trio shoved the gate open and then walked inside.
The alley was like a ten meters corridor between buildings that eventually lead to a big square open space behind the antique shop.
To the right was the antique shop, more closer to the alley was a roll-up gate made of metal, probably used to bring heavy loads inside the shop, at the side of it a backdoor and beside it a staircase leading up to the back access of the second floor. On the opposite side was a warehouse with a very big tilting gate and ramp; at the side facing away from the alley was a couple of steps leading down to a short hallway that gave access to the warehouse's side door.
The trio looked around a little checking if there's really no one there, around five minutes later they conclude that no one was there apart from them, as such allowing the trio to relax a bit.
"Uhoho For a moment I thought someone would be here"
"Not alone on that buddy!"
The young man let it out the sigh he was holding up, the corner of his mouth then curled in a pleased grin when saw the plan working "Looks like that info was right! Come on you two, to the door of the warehouse!"
Nodding together the three burglars then proceeded to the warehouse, under the witness of the moon, the around twenty meters got quickly crossed by them.
Arriving at the steps they went down and entered the hallway
'Here is way darker than outside' thought the fit young man with annoyance. He got to admit, this next part of the plan would have been way harder to pull out if not the old lamp's light 'Should give him some prop for bringing this old thing'
Soon, they finally arrived at their goal.
"My turn"
Taking something from his belt the fit young man stepped forward, crouching beside the door he unfolded what he had picked revealing a quite expensive lock-picking kit that, despite looking well maintained, still showed signs of being worn out. Clearly, the kit was used very often by the fit young man.
Tweak
Tweak
Tweak
...
The fit young man quickly put himself to work after no more than a minute of preparation, his already firmly ingrained lock-picking skill came forth in full bloom as tried to crack the expensive lock of the door.
""…""
His two partners in crime watched in silence the fit young man, for them the lock-picking skill that earned him some fame in their circle had always been quite a show to watch. His skill contrast greatly with the tall and fit form of someone that prefers bursting through tactics; resulting in a quite interesting scene to watch.
Still, with them being partners this scene was something they had watched many times already, Because of this, it didn't take long for them to grow bored.
The bearded man seeing that it would still take some time to crack the lock decided to break the silence by putting forward a question that was bothering him "So…. Why are we breaking into the antique shop? There's only some old stuff here"
The lanky man's eyes glinted in the dark, he saw in his friend's question a way to solve his boredom. Making sure to keep the old lamp's light still shining over the door he turned to answer "People pay a pretty good penny for old things, we can get a channel from the Venom-Honey to sell them and make some good profit man"
"I know, but still…. couldn't we have gone rob a better place? Like that liquor shop on Wharf Avenue?" A wishful look appeared in his eyes, just thinking about those really expensive bottles in that store already made him drool!
The lanky shook his head in disapproval seeing his friend look "Have you forgot who owns a part of that store? We will become history very quickly if we steal that place!" those words worked well in bringing the bearded man back from the clouds "Besides, the boss had passed to us a piece of info about this place. Have you noticed that we haven't found even a single surveillance den-den mushi earlier when scouring the place?"
"Now that you mentioned…"
"According to our info, all the den-den mushi had caught some disease that made them incapable of doing their work"
"Disease?" he raised an eyebrow at that "Can this li'l buggers even get sick?"
The lanky man saw the skeptical look and just shrugged "Apparently they can. The owner took them for treatment, at the same time ordered some short-term replacements from abroad. They should have arrived by now, but look unlucky, the ship bringing them got ransacked by the Ravenous Wolfs a few days ago"
"I see… so after that they just bit the bullet and tried to go a few days without any surveillance?! Uoho I admire the boldness of these people!" on a mental note he decided to give whoever came with this idea a pat on the shoulder for the courage "Hey, didn't the Ravenous Wolfs got their ass whooped by the marines? I personally saw many of their man being taken in earlier in the harbor"
"Really?!" taken aback by this news the lanky man eyes widened "I heard some guys in the Venom-Honey saying something about how they got kicked so hard in teeth that even their mother wouldn't recognize them; I thought they had been just blowing air, but looks like I was wrong!"
"You don't know half of it man! I saw Prictus himself being taken in the harbor, he looked like he had been chawed by a lightning storm!"
"Lie!"
Hearing how carried away his two partners got made the corners of the fit young man's mouth twitch, his face darkened with each passing second until a point he couldn't hold it anymore. He turned to the two and growled in exasperation "How about doing something useful?! One of you two goes watch over the gate, now!"
""!""
Caught off guard both men froze.
"I go!" The stout bearded man recovered first, picking his bolt-cutter with his left he rushed out of the hallway.
"I-"
The lanky man seeing his friend running away wanted to say something, but then change his mind when he sensed the piercing glare being shot at him by the fit young man.
…
…
…
'Is kinda dark here'
After leaving the hallway the bearded man sighed in relief, looking around he like the fit young man took notice of how much darker inside the hallway was compared to outside.
That sky was clear that night, with not many clouds hovering around the moon's light was allowed to pour down with basically no hindrance. It was still quite dark, obviously, but compared to the hallway that more looked like an ancient beast with its maw open, it was still better.
"At least I can still see when someone is coming"
Resting his bolt-cutter over his shoulder the bearded man began to walk to the gate, he even began to hum some old pirate song as he crossed the distance. Surprisingly, his humming sounded very pleasant actually, showing that he has quite the rhythmic skills. But sadly, only the moon was there to witness and enjoy his skills, he was not bothered by that though.
Arriving at the alley's entrance he saw the still opened gate, approaching it he planned to close the damn thing, but first, he gave a half step outside and looked around a bit.
The street was still engulfed in darkness, deserted not a single soul could be found around 'Just as I wished'
Having seen what he wanted the bearded man closed the gate, going back inside he leaned against the wall just outside the alley in a way that would allow him to keep an eye on the gate, while still staying out of sight of anyone that happened to enter from it.
"This should be enough, now…" Reaching a pocket on his tool belt he picked a tin flask, taking off the cap he took a good swing of the drink inside "Uoho Best thing I stole in ages! That clerk really didn't lie when saying it was one of the best on the island" His mood lifted after a swing of the drink, happy he began to hum again.
"Uohoho~"
...
Five minutes later and many more sip of the drink the bearded man's face was already with a very obvious reddened tone.
"I still wished we had gone stole a liquor shop or something" already tipsy to a certain extent he murmured some words in frustration, he still doesn't like being in that place even though he learned the reason why they are there.
Clank! Clank!
The stout bearded man was about to take another swing of his flask when a noise came from the gate, caught by surprise he jumped in place and almost dropped his flask 'Have the Marines arrived?!' the idea of being caught by the Marine sent a shiver through him.
Having traded some blows with Marines on the island in the past he didn't fear them much, but that was before, the way he saw the local Marines underwent a big change after he personally saw them bringing in the Ravenous Wolfs earlier that day.
The Ravenous Wolfs had been a famous pirate force in the area for a long time, their ferocity made him and many others deeply fear them, but if even they got their ass kicked by the Marines, what about him?
'Hope is not them'
Tightly gripping his bolt-cutter he attentively watched the gate, but even after ten minutes had passed the gate was still closed with no more signs of activity happening again.
Still a little wary the man carefully approached the gate, crouching down he used the gap beneath the gate to peer outside.
"Sigh It must have been just the wind" he finally let go of a sigh he was holding "Uoho To think that I almost shit myself for noth-UorghHHhh!"
Having peered outside and found nothing the bearded man was about to relax again when out of nowhere something came from behind him and grabbed his feet.
Before he could even realize what was happening he got dragged into the alley's darkness behind. The only thing left of him in the place was the marks of him being dragged on the ground.
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…
…
It didn't take that much time after the stout bearded man had left to the fit young man finally crack the lock of the warehouse's door.
Inside neatly organized shelves with all sorts of antiques and crates could be seen store all over the warehouse.
Ceramic vases of historical value, statues in bronze crafted by master artisans, old clocks that used to belong to an important figure, artistic mirrors once used by nobles, that warehouse was so packed with antiques to the point where no matter where you looked, you would still be able to gaze at something of great value.
After getting in the two burglars quickly put themselves to work. Since they knew nothing about how to evaluate the value of things inside the warehouse they just walked to anything that looked, in their eyes, to have the highest values and bagged them.
"Hmmn?"
The lanky man was about to pick a nice crafted plate from a shelf near the warehouse's door when he suddenly stopped. It was faint, but for one second there he felt like he heard the scream of the stout bearded man coming from outside
Turning in the young man's direction he yelled "Hey, I'm going to check outside to see how he is doing!"
"Okay!" The fit young man was busy looking through a crate with some paintings so he just replied without paying much mind.
…
With his old lamp in hand, the lanky man arrived outside in the open space
'He must be beside the gate' With that in mind, he made his way to the alley's entrance, but he stopped when he was just half the way, in the middle of the open space something reflected the light of his lamp and caught his attention.
"This is his tin flask!" The thing reflecting light turned out to be a tin flask, it looked just like the one he always saw the stout bearded man carrying around "Bru-bu-but why it's dropped here?..."
A sense of dread surge inside the lanky man, the silence of the night that once soothed him at that moment only worked to make him even more frightened.
Swosh!
For some reason, a cloud drifted in front of the moon at that moment, blocking its light and making the already dark place be cut from its only source of light. With that last barrier of resistance going away the darkness of the night finally saw a chance to completely engulf the place.
"…"
Looking at the darkness at the edges of the old lamp's light the lanky began to felt like some ancient creature was prowling inside while gazing at him with hungry eyes.
"I think it's better if I go ba-"
Pressing the old lamp on his chest for comfort the lanky man began to walk backward in the warehouse's direction, but ended up stopping just after a couple of steps when he felt his back hitting something that he could swear was not there before, feeling numb he raised his head.
What he saw would be forever burned on his mind.
'A lightning storm?...'
…
…
…
"Where are those guys?"
After having sorted through some paintings he waited for his two partners return to help him carry some of the bigger and heavier antiques.
He waited for around five minutes, but soon the wait made him lose his patience.
Looking around his gaze eventually feel on a switch on the wall "What we have here?" walking to it he inspected the thing a little before deducing that It was the warehouse's tilting gate switch 'I will just open this thing and go drag those two back here' With that in mind he hit the switch.
Hmmhn!
The mechanism on the tilting gate came online and hummed into work, like that slowly it began to lift the gate.
Having activated the tilting gate the fit young man just walked forward and stood in wait before it.
"I wonder what those two were thinking? An easy job like this with such a high profit and they are still fooling around! Do they realize how much of a favor the boss is doing us by bypassing the info for this job to us, and not to someone else? Argh… I love those two, we have been doing jobs together for a long time already, but times like this make me wonder if I shouldn't just go and find some new partners… actually, yeah, this it's exactly what I'm going to do! I will not dump them completely, we are friends after all, but I'm sure as hell not going to call them so frequently for jobs. I heard the Marines here had received some reinforcements, the fact that they managed to kick the ass of the Ravenous Wolfs means that here on Mel Island will get harder to make a profit in our line of work, for me that is an even bigger reason for to go find some new partners. After this job I will-…."
Lost in his endless monologue the fit young man soon became absent-minded and forgot to look at the tilting gate.
STEP!
STEP!
STEP!
Hearing the steps approaching the fit young man just assumed it was his two soon-to-be ex-criminal partners, still so lost in his own world he was he didn't even notice how different and powerful these steps actually sounded.
"... Oh, so you two finally came huh? Good, now come on and help me with-"what the young man saw when he finally raised his head instantly brought him out of his own world, and made him froze completely in place.
Black scales, grey eyes.
These are the two main features of the mythical being that was staring at him just two centimeters away from his face.
"Growl!"
After some seconds staring in silence at the utterly scare man the Dragon apparently got bored, he opened his maw filled with sharp teeth and spat a jet of white smoke at the fit young man's face.
"!"
The fit young lost all color at that.
Then, as if a puppet who got all his strings cut by scissors, he fell completely out cold to the ground.
…
…
…
…
…
…
Roser Antique, Mel Island
What just happened to the fit young man in the antique's warehouse was so sudden, that even the Dragon, the one who caused all of this, was caught by surprise and left stunned.
This Dragon is, obviously, the young marine Monkey D. Lucas.
Earlier when following the scent trail he came to the antique shop roughly around forty-minutes after the trio of burglars had broke in.
Basically no thinking was needed to know what was happening. His first thought was to just march him, smack the burglars in the head and stop what they were doing, but then he changed his mind when he saw the bearded man coming.
Feeling a little playful he decided to do a little role play of monster in the dark, he was a four and a half meters tall humanoid dragon, and the scenario was conductive of it after all, so, why not?.
Knowing that the gate was being watched by the bearded man, Lucas decided to go in from above.
Flying up he began to circle in the sky above the area, watching the man from up there he began to brainstorm in search of some ideas he could use, after five minutes he came up with something. Going low he flew very close past the gate, a gust of wind was then created that hit the gate, it shook a little and made a clank sound that got the desired result of spooking the bearded man.
Flying up again he waited for about ten minutes and when the man walked to the gate Lucas silently glided inside, landing he then approached the man from behind and waited. When he got distracted Lucas used his tail to grab him by the feet, holding him with his tail he lifted the bearded man so he could gaze him at the eye.
The man was actually quite courageous, after a moment frozen he swung his bolt-cutter at Lucas. The blow, obviously, didn't do anything to Lucas, not even a tickle. After that, he just flicked the man in the head with the tip of his claw making him go out.
Sensing another burglar coming Lucas climbed to the top of the warehouse using his claws, the bearded mas was brought along using his tail. Around a minute later he then saw a lanky man holding an old lamp come out from the hallway on the side of the warehouse.
He gazed at the man for a time, when the cloud blocked the moon was when he acted.
Climbing down from the warehouse's roof he silently came behind the lanky man and just stood there, when the lanky lifted his head to look at him Lucas gave him a stare, then he flicked a claw at his head and knocked the man out.
After that Lucas used his lightning to make a chain around the two burglars and put them on the side.
He was thinking a little about what he could do with the last burglars when he heard the gate of the warehouse lifting.
Going by the smell Lucas could tell that the burglar was just standing on the other side of the gate, not that he needed as he could clearly hear the endless complaints coming from the burglar's mouth.
When the gate lifted he just walked to him and lowered his head until he was two centimeters away from the burglar's face, when he got no reaction even after the man saw him Lucas decided to a little trick.
When using his breath attacks and similars in his hybrid and full-form Lucas had noticed that sometimes smoke would drift out from his mouth.
Finding it cool he decided to learn how to do it willingly, it took only a few attempts to learn the trick. Basically, all that Lucas need to do was to use his lightning to heat up the air inside him just a little, when he breathed out or just spat the now heated air it would come out as a jet of white smoke.
Apart from making him look cool in both his human and draconic forms, doing this trick was actually quite relaxing.
"I was not expecting this" said Lucas in a genuinely puzzled tone while he looked at the now without color burglar in the ground "Being just some slightly hot air the trick should haven't caused any damage, so why have you fainted like that?"
Looking around Lucas saw a big mirror at one side of the warehouse, walking to the mirror he looked at his reflection for about four minutes "I always thought I was way cooler than scary like this… was I wrong?"
Lucas was not wrong about that.
His full Lightning Dragon form is that of a giant black western dragon, his hybrid form is a humanoid/sort of bipedal version of that.
He was quite big, even in a world where people can grow to be more than two meters of height easier a height of four and a half meters was still not common. The wings on his back, which are dark grey on the inside part, worked in his favor and made him look even bigger, all this combined gave his form quite the imposing air.
His dragon scales, which are mostly black with the exception of some parts on his body where they are grey, shined in a metallic light that gave people a feeling of them being impenetrable. His head was the best part of him, it was now that of a dragon with grey eyes that literally had lightning inside them, the teeth in his maw, the claws on both his hands and feet, and the tail behind all looked sharp and would sometimes glint in a cold light.
He didn't have any horn or spike, but that would probably change as he grows up.
To sum everything, he indeed looked cool.
But a very obvious fact that he overlooked, probably because of the influence of his grandpa Garp, is that he… was a humanoid black dragon with four and a half meters of height and God knows how many Kg of weight!
...
"Well, the scare I gave you three can be considered the punishment you all deserve for brake in the antique shop to steal the treasures of another" turning around Lucas gazed at the warehouse and at all the things taken out of place by the three burglars "Now..."
Going to work Lucas began to put everything taken by the burglars back in their place.
The people of that antique ware very orderly, the warehouse was neatly organized and basically, all the shelves and crates had labels on them, so to him it wasn't hard to find where everything belonged.
Putting the heavy things in their place is something he did effortlessly, for obvious reasons, the smaller and more fragile antiques Lucas put in place using his lightning. He would coat the antiques with some sparks and then use electromagnetism to perform a type of telekinesis based around lightning.
This technique created a beautiful sight inside the warehouse. The glow coating the antiques hovering around looked very mesmerizing in the darkness of the warehouse, when they move a glowing tail would form that would draw lines in the air.
It was almost like seeing stars dancing around in the night sky.
"Quite useful technique, shame I can't still use it on heavier things. Hmnm, I should put some more effort into training this, who knows? Maybe in the future, I can use this to make my ship take up to the sky… or I can just pick the ship with my full-form and fly away with it"
…
With his monologue, four minutes soon passed.
Shutting the door unlocked by the burglars using lock-picking Lucas walked back and picked the colorless man from the ground, strolling out his tail flicked to the side, and hit the gate's switch making the mechanism hum into life and lowering the gate.
Now outside Lucas walked to where he left the other two. Looking at the two still passed out burglars he decided to take off their masks and see how they actually looked.
"A stout man who age I can't tell because of his tick-beard, a thirty-something very thin man, and a young man looking to be around twenty-five… Haha what a strange trio"
After looking at how they looked Lucas turned his inquiring eyes to the things they had been carrying. It didn't take long for him to discover that apart from a lock-picking kit, an old lamp, the bolt-cutter, and the tin-flask, the burglars only carried some patched leather bags, ten coins, matches, and some paper that now more looked like pieces of garbage
"Sniff… I don't smell any gunpowder on them"
Surprisingly enough the only weapon he found was a cheap knife that for him barely qualified as a toothpick. He effortlessly lifted each one upside down and shook them around to make sure that nothing was left hidden on them. The bearded and lanky men hadn't dropped anything more when he shook them, but the young man did "What is this?"
Extending his hand Lucas caught a somehow wrinkled white card. On the card was a jar with a sneering black skull draw on the front, beneath it the letters 'M.I.C.L' were printed in some very crude font.
"An invitation card with a honey jar on it?" with eyes glowing in confusion he inspected the card more, he turned the thing around, created a spark and put the card against its light, and for last even sniffed the thing "Apart for a faint strange sweet scent, there's nothing else on it... Hmmn I wonder what these letters stand for"
Not finding anything else on the strange invitation card Lucas just shrugged nonchalantly and then guarded it for later, after that he turned his eyes back to the three burglars.
Grabbing all three by their collar with his left he threw them a mirthful grin "Now, let me take you three to a stroll"
ShhhooSSsh!
Taking off Lucas flew up and began to circle above the Roser Antique shop and area.
[Lightning]
When passing above the alley entrance he opened his maw and launched a bolt of lightning at the gate. Engulfed by the crackling lightning the gate glowed and then tightly sealed itself shut.
Up in the air, Lucas checked the gate from afar "This will do well for warding off any more braking in attempts. The charge I put should last until morning, by then the owner and workers should have arrived already to look after the place" Seeing the seal working made the corners of his mouth raise in a 'pleased with my own work' kinda smile.
Having finished everything there Lucas stopped circling above the shop like a vulture over a carcass, beating his wings he cut through the wind and flew away in the direction of the east side of Mel Town.
…
…
…
East Suburbs, Mel Island
"You sure about that?"
"I know what I saw Fay!"
Inside the living room of an apartment on the east of the island a stylish dressed long-brown-haired woman named Fay was staring at her friend, a short-black-haired woman wearing a very nice jacket named Emely, with a very skeptical look.
"It's not that I don't want to believe you Emy, but, you said a dragon flew past us right? Even you got to admit that this is something kinda hard to believe" said the brown-haired woman, her voice was apologetic but her expression was still marred with skepticism.
Earlier both of them had been on a bar called Daybreak with some other female friends. It was supposed to be their girl night, when they arrived and began to drink and have fun everything was great, but then something happened. Not long after they began to drink, Emely that was taking a sip of a red drink with her eyes glowing with glee suddenly underwent a change of mood.
Fay her closest friend was the first to notice the change, she saw Emely gazing at the sky with a dumbfounded look in her eyes. Looking at the sky she saw nothing, she asked Emely what was wrong but she at the time just brushed her off and said that it was nothing, she even put the drink she barely sipped to the side and didn't accept any more drinks.
The other friends in the group beginning to notice the change would come to her and ask if everything was alright, but just like with Fay, Emely would just brush their question aside and said that nothing was wrong.
The discrepancy of her actions and her answer obviously raised a lot of eyebrows, but eventually, the others decided to stop bothering her and just go back to what they had been doing, that's it, having fun on their girl night.
Emely tried to follow the others in the fun, but she was clearly still upset and worried about whatever she had seen earlier. The only thing she drank was that sip of the red drink, she didn't accept any invitations to dance, when chatting she would from to time look at the sky as if searching for something, and basically no longer had the drive for partying anymore.
Fay noticing that her friend Emely was not having fun decided to accompany her home, her house was at walking distance from Emely's place anyway.
After arriving at Emely's house Fay decided she couldn't wait anymore, grabbing her friend by the shoulder she straight up asked:
"Hey, Emy why don't you speak to me about what you saw? We are best friends, right? So just spit out what you saw!"
Her action naturally got Emely stunned, at first she thought about giving the same answer from before, but the scorching blaze shining over her from her friend Fay's eye made her throw that thought out the window.
"If you insist so much…" stepping back from her friend's grip she took a long breath before answering "I haven't told you anything before because I didn't think anyone would believe, but since you want to hear I will say it. Earlier on the Daybreak, I felt something gazing at me from above when I raised my head and look at the sky I saw-…I saw a black dragon flying above us, that's it, happy now?"
Fay's response to that answer was, obviously, a stunned look followed by a skeptical one.
"You are certain that you didn't just saw a strange bird?" sitting down on the couch Fay crossed her arms and asked.
"A bird doesn't have black scales, a sharp tail, or eyes with such powerful gaze! Besides, it was YOU that asked me about what I saw, I just answered!" after growling that her eyes lowered into a tired expression, she threw a sigh before walking to the balcony at the side of the living room.
"Okay, Okay!" Raising her hands in a surrender motion Fay apologized to her friend "Sorry girl, I'm just got worried with you"
"I know Fay, I know. But now even I'm beginning to have some doubts … Sigh Did I really saw a drag-!" Leaning against the rails on the balcony Emely sighed again. Murmuring she raised her head to look at the stars, but she saw something that made her eyes widened, her body froze, and her breath become a little more rugged.
In the living room, Fay saw her best friend losing all color and became worried "What's wrong Emy? Are you not feeling wel-?!"
Raising herself from the couch she came to the balcony to check her friend. Seeing Emely looking at the sky, she without much thinking lifted her head and looked in the same direction, what came to her sight when she did that made her jack go slack and her eyes bulge in pure astonishment.
What they saw up there in the air, flying with the bearing of someone that ruled the skies, was the mythical being that had earlier disrupted all their plans for that night and whose existence was actually being questioned just less than a minute ago.
"Iii—tts th,that a dar-draaa?!—"
"-I think-I it is!"
""THE DRAGON?!"
The two didn't know if it was just coincidence, or the dragon had actually heard their scream, but at that moment in the distance, the Dragon opened his jaw filled with sharp teeth and let it out a roar that rumbled across the night sky.
Roar!
Hearing the roar, some people in the neighboring apartments that are still awake walked out to their balconies, looking at the sky they searched for the source of the roar. But sadly for them, the mythical being that just made his presence known had already flown away, vanishing from the night sky.
"What was that?" On the neighboring balcony to the right a two meters tall red-haired man with ripped muscles and wearing just sleeping pants had also walked out, he came looking for the animal that had made that imposing roar but found nothing. Turning to the side he saw the two best friends gazing at the sky with dumbfound looks, curious he asked "Hey Emily, Fay, have you two saw what was in the sky?"
"…"
The two women hearing the question finally took their gaze off the sky, looked at him then at each other. After that they just walked out of the balcony back to the apartment, leaving the red-haired man there looking at their back with a puzzled look.
…
…
…
East River Park, Mel Island
Lucas, the Dragon seen by both Emely and Fay, was completely unaware about how he had just by the second time on that night unintentionally changed the life of someone because of his appearance in the sky.
After having left the Roser Antique he flew while carrying the three burglars to the east, because earlier when he was flying around the town he had briefly passed over a Marine guard post around here.
The reason he was there at that moment was obvious, he came to drop the burglars.
"Okay you three the stroll through the night sky is over" with his face curling into an amused expression, one that looked kinda menacing on his dragon visage, Lucas looked at the three burglars he was holding with his left.
All three burglars now are being restrained together using a ring Lucas bent in shape using a piece of metal he had picked from a scrapyard. They had woke up during the flight there, confused, when they saw their current situation the three became so scared they passed out again before Lucas could even think about knocking them out.
Some minutes later when the marines weren't paying attention Lucas flew to a street light just outside the guard post and dropped them beneath its light.
After that, tilting his body to the side he made a turn, above the marine guard post he began to hover there in place.
"The things people throw away" Lifting his right he looked at the metal plate he was holding, it was also picked from the scrapyard and still looked like it had just come out from the factory. Reading what he had written on it Lucas smiled "Good, this should be enough!"
With a flick of his hand, he threw the plate down at the marine guard post's doorstep.
…
Since there wasn't been any occurrence on that night in that area, down in the guard post the five marines assigned to duty currently found themselves with nothing to do. As such, they kind of just sat inside the guard post while looking around with bored expressions.
Bang!
That's it, until something literally feel from the sky on their doorstep.
"Whata?!"
"Who?"
"It came from outside!"
Stunned at first the marines quickly jumped in action.
"What this?" A tanned marine was the one close to the door, what greeted him when he opened the it was a big, fifty for twenty, metal plate with something carved on it buried into the guard post's doorstep "Guys it's a metal plate with something written on it!"
Looking closer the thing carved on the plate was actually something that appeared to be a message, it read:
[I was walking around the town when I came across an ongoing crime, three burglars broke into a store, I dealt with them and put everything they picked back in their place. I brought all three to you, they are contained and knocked out under the lamp-post just outside your guard post; you can probably already see them from where you are. Also, don't be surprised if they wake up with an expression of fear on their faces, I kinda scared them before knocking them out, just something light as punishment for trying to steal someone else's property
Your mythical neighborhood friend}
The expression of the tanned marine and that of the other four marines behind him became a sight to behold after they read what was written.
As if coordinated all five men lifted their eyes away from the message and looked at the nearest light-post, and sure enough, there under its light three men laid knocked out cold in the ground.
"Hey, I think… I think I can recognize one of them; that bearded man over there, I exchanged blows with him during an occurrence some time ago" a bald and buffed marine, the one in charge of that guard post, said drawing the other's attention.
"So it's true…"
"…"
…
"It's done"
Flying high in the sky where most couldn't see Lucas had been watching the marines from above, he did that until when the marines walked out to the restrained burglars.
Turning around he gave the town below a good look.
"Shame I wasn't able to see everything"
Mel Island is considered to be small in size, but that's it when compared with other islands around the world. From the perspective of a person Mel Island, it's actually a quite large stretch of land, to go from one end of the island to the other would still take some amount of time.
To Lucas any 'long' distance, will be become a 'short' distance thanks to his ability to fly, as such, if he had planned in just going from one end of Mel Island to the other, his night stroll would have been long concluded, but as the way it is now, he still has many things to see "Anyway, this night has been quite eventful and fun, but I have to wake up for work earlier tomorrow. After all, I can't arrive late for my first day of work here"
...
In the sky, the cloud that had previously drifted in front of the moon was long gone.
The shining moon now free once again poured his silver light down into the land.
High there in the night sky Lucas's dragon scales being showered by the moonlight began to glint in a mesmerizing way, and as he cut through the air that glow made his dragon body gain a sort of mystical air.
By some unknown laws the glow reacted with his body's already unique aura, the two mixed together and amplified each other. The result covered Lucas's body and made it so that anyone that looked at him at that moment, would once again remember why he was a mythical being that would forever remain ingrained in the minds of people around the world.
"Roar!"
Roaring he beat his wings with more vigor than before, propelling himself with that he shot away in the night sky.
...
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Finalmente acabei!
Whow, that was one big chapter( God I'm tired!)
What are your thoughts on this one? Going around the town our MC took a stroll through the skies of the island he ended up having a very eventful first night in Mel Island
He stopped some burglars by using a terrorizing tactic, stunned silly two women without even realizing it, and basically made many waves through the town (note that all the time he was in his hybrid form)
The next chapter will be his first day of work here on Mel Island, what will happen? what results will his actions in this night have? Where all this will lead? that something that you (and me) will have to discover in the future.
Like always thanks guys for reading, we arrived at the insane number of 416/550 favorites and follows, what a good number to end the year!.
Constructive critics are always welcomed.
That you all had a happy end of the year, see you all in the next one!
Fiquem Bem!