Chapter 12

Discovered

Usopp walked with his hands behind his head, "Huh. I didn't know you were so respectful of your elders."

"I can be like that sometimes!" Franky retorted. He just recognized SUPER power when he saw it.

"Hey… How about we go to the amusement park?

"YOU BE QUIET!" Franky and Usopp told Luffy. This wasn't the time to go on some rides!

Chopper and Brook looked at each other, "We kinda want to go too."

"NOT YOU GUYS TOO!"

Maxwell stopped walking, "Luffy…" The rest of the crew didn't notice he had stopped until they were a few feet away. There was a solemn look on Maxwell's face which made them look at the mage in concern.

"There's… something I have to tell you."

Luffy looked back at his first-mate, confused. There was a different weight in Max's words this time, compared to whenever else he had been serious. The mage had always advised, organized, and been realistic with his captain, giving his full opinion. But now, he was hesitating…

It might not have been a profound realization, but Maxwell respected Luffy. He may have been young, foolish, and stubborn, but he valued his friends closely. Luffy helped him out of the depression he felt when Maxwell realized he couldn't go home. He found a new goal to reach towards, and he would always be thankful for it. Luffy actually helped all of them in some shape or form. He would do anything help them, no matter what happened to himself.

…But what had they done for Luffy? Offer their companionship? Tried to reign him in? Luffy didn't care for most of that, just so long as they were on an adventure... Yet, the guilt weighed heavily in Maxwell's chest. This knowledge… It may very well put a stop to that.

Portgas D. Ace was going to be executed in 5 days. And NONE of them would want that to happen! Yet, Maxwell hesitated… If he told Luffy, Maxwell wasn't sure they would even be able to succeed.

What Rayleigh had with Roger, was built on an explicit trust they had for one another. Each member that they sailed with had each other's back. With it, they conquered the seas and reached heights no one had yet dreamed of… And by the sound of it, Roger had been every bit as stubborn and foolish as Luffy was.

What Maxwell hadn't realized until now, was how much he enjoyed sailing with Luffy. With everyone! Quirks and all. From Zoro's sparing sessions, to Nami's poker games, to even just spending time at the dinner table. They had faced every challenge they came across, together. Arlong, Crocodile, Enel, CP9, Moria, they faced each problem as a team.

They cared about each other. Wanted each other safe…

But that was exactly what made this so hard to say…!

"Oh yeah, how'd it go with that Basil guy anyway?" Zoro asked. Which only made Maxwell tense more.

"Basil?" asked Sanji, looking between him and Zoro. "Why would you need a chopped herb?"

"Well it sure as hell wasn't for cooking, you crap cook!" Zoro barked at the chef.

"YOU WANT TO GO, MOSS-HEAD!?" Sanji yelled back at the swordsman.

"HELL YEAH!" Zoro put a hand on his katana, "WE'LL EVEN GET SOME CHOPPED HERB FROM—!"

"WILL YOU TWO BE QUIET!"

Maxwell's shout drowned out both rivals, making Sanji and Zoro both flinch. That shout actually made everyone step back. They looked at Maxwell's hands. His fists were curled up so tight you could hear the leather squeaking in his gloves.

"…This is hard enough as it is, guys. Please..." They realized just how serious the mage was being.

Luffy stepped forward, standing right in front of his first-mate. "Max. What's going on?"

Maxwell hesitantly looked back at his captain, into his resolute gaze. This was the part he was afraid about. How seriously Luffy took his nakama. He would go into the deepest pits, filled with darkspawn, if it meant helping his friends... And Maxwell wanted to be worthy of that respect.

"Luffy… It's about—" Maxwell saw something behind his captain, and instantly paled. "Kuma!"

"Huh? A bear?" Luffy tilted his head sideways.

"No, Luffy—" Maxwell spun his captain around and pointed, "KUMA!"

"EH!?" Everyone else spun around, realizing just what the mage was saying. Bartholomew Kuma was standing not to far away from them. He stood like a granite colossus, looking at them behind reflective spectacles.

The Straw-Hats Pirates all drew their weapons, ready for a fight! "Get back, Luffy! He's one of the Seven Warlords!"

Kuma started taking his gloves off.

"Warlords!?" Luffy looked back, "How do you guys know that!?"

"Don't let him hit you with that attack! It's a shockwave!" Sanji shouted.

Light gathered in Kuma's palm, aiming it towards Luffy.

Maxwell reacted. Grabbing Luffy by the shoulder he pulled him into a Winter glyph and sped out of the way with a Fade Step.

Where they both once been, had detonated into an explosion. A laser had fired out of Kuma's palm. Everyone braced from the resulting shockwave. The winds were so strong, it threatened to knock them off their feet!

"WOAH!" "What's going on!?" "What was that!? Since when could he do that!?"

"Hey! That wasn't a shockwave!" Luffy complained.

Chopper agreed. "That was…!"

"A BEAM~!" The two of them realized with stars in their eyes.

"THIS ISN'T THE TIME FOR THAT, YOU MORONS!" Usopp yelled at his compatriots of the Kiddy Trio.

"Bartholomew Kuma! Not him again!" Robin looked nervously at the Warlord.

"…That bastard…!" Zoro gritted his teeth.

"Is that they guy who came out after I was unconscious at Thriller Bark!?" Luffy asked his crew.

"Yeah! This is the guy!" Usopp pointed at the Warlord. "That time, he got us by shooting shockwaves from his palms!"

Chopper transformed into his Human Point, "He meant to finish us off at the time. But he must have realized we survived and came after us again!"

Maxwell, Zoro, and Sanji all grimaced. Not mentioning Kuma had spared them all after Zoro became a sacrificial piece! Technically four of them knew, but Robin wasn't mentioning it either.

"You really did a number on us back then!" Franky shouted, bringing his hands together, "COUP DE VENT!"

A massive air cannon fired from between Franky's two palms. It struck Kuma right in the chest, making him shoot backwards into a root of the nearby mangrove.

Steam started to waft from Luffy.

"Eh! Luffy!?" Brook looked back at his captain.

"Gear Second!" Luffy was in a horse stance, fist pounded into the ground. Franky's attack had barely staggered the giant cyborg, so Luffy was looking directly at Kuma! "I know you're strong. So I'll go all out from the start!"

"We've got no choice!" Sanji loosened his tie. "That first time, we had just finished with Oars. But this, is going to be different, now that we're fresh!"

Zoro drew all three of his swords, placing the Wado Ichimonji into his mouth.

"TAKE HIM DOWN!" Maxwell shouted. "BARRIER!" Blue aura enveloped the crew as they charged the would be Warlord. If they were facing Kuma, they needed every advantage they could get!

Usopp, Nami, Robin, and Maxwell flanked, while Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Franky, Chopper, and Brook ran forward. Maxwell unleashed a series of arcane bolts and an Energy Bombardment heading straight for the Warlord. Streams of violet lightning struck the cyborg, meant to weaken it, while Nami prepared her climatact. In the other wing, Usopp fired off Firebird Stars, one of the stronger pellets in his arsenal. Robin took cover, using her assassin train to look for a window of opportunity.

Luffy shot forward like jet getting in close before, "JET PISTOL!" punching Kuma in the jaw. Sanji, being one of the faste crew members, jumped as he attacked next. "EPULE SHOOT!" He brought his foot down in an axe kick upon Kuma's shoulder. The two then jumped back as Maxwell's and Usopp's shots landed.

Through the smoke, light gathered in Kuma jaw before firing it into the distance. A constant yellow beam that moved as his head swivelled. Usopp, Maxwell, and Nami jumped out of the way as the beam flew past them. It was detonating the ground as the laser followed the trail! Pete and splinters fly everywhere!

Light then gathered in Kuma's palm and Zoro, Franky, Chopper, and Brook came to a halt when they realized it was aimed at them! Sanji jumped with them, out of the way! An explosion rocketing off behind them. Kuma then aimed his palm at Luffy and the pirate ran. He jumped and dashed as Kuma tried to hit him with his lasers.

"HERE IT COMES!" Usopp, Franky, and Brook had to jump and run away from one laser and Luffy got to close! "DAAAAAHHH!"

They hid behind the arch of a ruined building, get out of the cyborg's line of sight. "From his hands and his mouth…!" Usopp panted as he looked around the corner.

"Scary!" the skeleton yelped.

"What the hell is that!?" Franky grunted.

"I told you, it's a beam!" Usop looked back at their own cyborg.

"Look, having a weapon like that would be SUPER cool! But using a ray of light like that is something only out of fairytales!" Franky retorted.

"Does THAT look like a fairytale to you!?" Usopp point back to where more lasers fired off. He then looked over and saw Brook slumped back against the wall, "…Uh, what are you doing?"

"Pretending to be dead."

"You just ruined it!" Usopp yelled as Brook faced them.

Not everyone hid though. Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji, raced towards Kuma, through a field of explosions as the warlord tried to hit them. Maxwell stood at the back gathering his mana into conjuring a Fade-touched stone. Luffy prepped his fists while Sanji's leg caught fire! "Santoryu—" "Gomu Gomu no—" "Diable Jambe—"

They attacked as one!

"STONE MOUTON JET 800 POUND CANNON!"

Sanji and Luffy attacked with a flurry of punches and kicks, taking the giant's left side. Zoro unleashed his triple wind slash into the warlords liver, while Maxwell's Stonefist rocketed into Kuma's shoulder!

The combination sent the warlord flying, crashing into a set of abandoned buildings. Rubble and dust kicking up from the impact, and one unstable building toppled over.

Maxwell ran over to join with the boys. Something wasn't right with this fight…

"Are you sure this was a Warlord?" Luffy asked, his body calming down as it exited Gear Second. "Maybe he has a twin or something!?"

"That might be so…!" Sanji grunted, dirt covering the right side of his face. Kuma hadn't spoken a word during this entire battle. The Warlords were usually a bit more talkative!

Zoro was panting, "If that was the real thing, then he would have used that teleporting technique to dodge more of our attacks." Kuma had taken every blow the Straw-Hats threw at him so far. It was a testament to his durability, but logically didn't make sense. "And more importantly he hasn't used any shockwaves to attack us yet!"

"Yeah, and I didn't see any paw prints on either of his palms either!" Maxwell responded. Kuma had specifically mentioned he ate the Paw-Paw Fruit back at Thriller Bark. "If this one's a fake, then we have another problem."

"That means there are at least two people as strong as him…!" Sanji growled. This "Kuma" may not have been as fast as the one they fought at Thriller Bark, but this doupleganger certainly didn't lack in fire power! They've been able to dodge the beams, but the debris still stung.

They watched as the cyborg got out of the rubble. You could see the cybernetic muscles beneath the clothing of Kuma's right shoulder. If this thing was a fake, then it was a very convincing one!

Kuma fired more lasers at the them, and they ran to get out of the way! This time the cyborg was using both hands! That meant triple the firing rate! Maxwell ran using the Fade Cloak and Fade Step to avoid being shot. The lasers passed threw him while in those states. Maxwell even fired back with an occasional bolt.

Luffy didn't have much choice either than to run though. His body needed to prime again if he was going to use Gear Second!

Zoro and Sanji tried attacking together, flanking the cyborg. "108 Pound Pheonix!" Zoro jumped and then firing off another three wind blades at the cyborg.

It made the cyborg stumble back, then Sanji came in from behind, "Concasser!" Sanji kicked the Kuma in the back of the knee, making the Cyborg falter. However. that didn't stop Kuma from gathering energy into its mouth! It was aimed at Zoro and—did Zoro just hesitate!?

"ZORO!" Maxwell moved in, grabbing the swordsman as he erected an Ice Wall. The mouth laser hit Maxwell's obstacle and both men went rolling from the resulting explosion!

Maxwell was the first one on his feet. "Zoro!? Hey, Zoro!" The mage hurried over to his friend. None of those ice shards had pelted them. So why was Zoro clutching his stomach, acting as though he were injured!?

"It's the phantom pains!" Mineive yelled in his mind. "Zoro's body may have recovered, but his spirit has not! Something must have triggered the memories inside his mind!"

"Dammit!" Maxwell cursed. He had to get Zoro out of here and—

"I'm fine!" Zoro coughed as he pushed Maxwell off him. He can still fight dammit!

Both Luffy and Sanji saw what had happened, but Sanji called back to his captain. "Don't worry about him, Luffy! We have to beat that thing first!"

"…Yeah!" Luffy was reluctant, but Maxwell was with him. He trusted the strength of his crewmates!

Chopper, in reindeer form, came charging up. He transformed into his bulging Arm Point, and brought his hooves up towards Kuma!

"Kokutei: Roseo Metal!" He stamped on the cyborg multiple times, creating an array cherry blossom like impacts on Kuma's chest.

It made the cyborg stumble, but it kept its footing and grab the human-reindeer. The Kuma then aimed his other palm at Chopper, while he had the doctor in his grasp!

Franky wouldn't let that happen though! "STRONG HAMMER!" He literally punched the wrist of the opposing cyborg, making it turn up, back, and fire another direction. Chopper transformed out of the Kuma's grasp, then Franky started punching it! "FRANKY BOXING!"

Franky punched Kuma's face, his gut, his pectorals! However after a few punches, Kuma dodged out of the way of one, then slugged Franky across the face!

"Spider Net."

A net of interlocking arms caught Franky before he could start tumbling across the ground. Robin had caught him, using a root and the ground for anchors.

"His fists aren't anything to sneeze at either!" Usopp grimaced as he observed the fake Warlord. Not only was he fighting them, Kuma was adapting to their tactics! He constantly kept Maxwell on the move with those lasers, and everyone else who came in to close either recieved a punch, an arm, or a laser from the mouth.

"Look out below! Here I go!" Everyone looked up to see Brook falling from the trunk of the mangrove tree. He had straighten his body like a dart, sword out stretched, right above Kuma!

"SWALLOW BOND AVANT!"

Brook's cane sword landed right on top of Kuma's exposed shoulder! …However it didn't pierce the cybernetics. "HUH!? It stopped!?"

Kuma opened his mouth, light gathering to shoot the skeleton balanced above him! "Wait, wait, that looks bad!"

"Certain Kill: ATLAS COMET!" Usopp fired his kabuto at the cyborg. His payload separating into four explosive shots that slammed into Kuma's head, shoulders, and stomach! It knocked the cyborg off balance and Brook fell down from his sword made perch.

Both of them immediately started running, after. "T-T-That was scary! Th-Thank you!"

Little did they know, those comets had accomplished something! Kuma had fallen onto his knees as if a stray punch had caught him off guard.

"Huh!? He looks kind of strange!" Chopper pointed out. Kuma was still getting up, but the cyborg was twitching.

"What? Bombs work on him now!?" Usopp asked in shock.

"One of the shots got into his mouth!" Franky shouted. "It must have short circuited something inside his body! His body is hard, but he can still bleed! Kuma may have weapons placed in his body, like me, but he's still human!"

Kuma's head turned and spotted Nami circling him. The navigator hadn't attacked him once this entire battle! "Nami, look out! He's spotted you!" Sanji tried to warn her.

The cyborg opened it's mouth as it gathered light to fire at the cat-burglar. Nami didn't think she'd out run it this time, but Robin made a pair of arms sprout on each shoulder. "Ochenta Fleur, Cuatro Mano! Shock!"

The two pairs gasped their hands together and hammered their combined fists onto the cyborgs head. The force of the hammer strike made Kuma's chomp down onto his own jaw, just as it was about to fire. Kuma's head exploded as he got hit from his own laser!

"Alright! The beam exploded in his mouth! He blew himself up!" Usopp cheered. The blast had the warlord reeling, even making fall onto his knees!

"Hey buddy, sorry for interrupting your break." Nami had chosen that moment to get close. Kuma was still reeling from the unexpected blast. "But you should look out for lightning!"

Nami had conjured a small black cloud behind the the cyborg. She then swung out climatact outward, "Thunder Lance Tempo!" making a thunderbolt strike through Kuma's back!

Brook could see the cyborg sparking. "It's working! That's great!"

Lasers then started coming out of Kuma's hands, firing at random. Kuma started to spinning around as he stood up, creating a no-man's land around him. "AH! NOW HE'S JUST RUNNING WILD!"

Kuma, he must blind, Maxwell realized. "This is it!" He started gathering mana, slowly conjuring a glyph above the stationary Warlord. The glyph glowed both a sickly green and hellish red, flaring like burnt gunpowder! He concentrated on the spell, carefully not to make a single mistake! This was a spell he had been working on for a while now, having learnt it from Salem!

"FIRESTORM!"

With the great sigil complete, fiery comets started raining down from above! The meteors whistled like fireworks, striking the cyborg like cannon fire! They pelted the ground, not caring for what was beneath it, and Kuma's body rocked with every meteor!

"Holy mother of—" Usopp flinched as he saw the Firestorm rain down from above.

"Maxwell's right! It's over!" Sanji's leg glowed red hot and started running towards the cyborg. He didn't care if meteors were raining down around Kuma. The cyborg had stopped firing!

Zoro put on his bandana on as he circled around, "Send him this way!"

"Stubborn bastard," Sanji tisked as he ran through the meteor field.

The comets stopped falling and Sanji leapt at Kuma!

"Diable Jambe! FLAMBABE SHOT!" Fire enveloped Kuma as Sanji kicked him straight in the sternum. That kick had enough force to send Kuma flying, and he was flying straight Zoro like he wanted!

"Kiki Kyutoryu." Zoro chanted. His body began to be overlapped with to other versions of himself. Sword in each hand, and blade within each mouth!

"Wh-What is that!?" "More Zoro's appeared!" Both Brook and Chopper gawked as they had never seen the technique before.

"Asura." Zoro's voice echoed with the reflections. "MAKYUSEN!"

Zoro spun, all nine blades slashing the fake warlord! You could even see Kuma coughing up blood for the strikes!

It was burned, battered, and now torn at the back. Now it was Luffy's turn! "GEAR THIRD!"

Luffy had done what Brook did before and ran up the tree to get airborne. He blew air into his arm, enlarging it, until it was the size of a giants fist. "Here we go!"

"Just one more hit!" "GO! LUFFY!"

"Gomu-Gomu no…!" Luffy threw his fist back, twisting it as it extended. Kuma tried to gather energy for another laser, only it couldn't quite see where Luffy was!

"Crush him, Luffy!"

"GIGANT—" Luffy threw his punch downwards, "RIFFLE!" His arm stretched as it came pounding down onto the weakened Kuma. Pete, moss, and stone crumbled beneath his mighty fist. It spun like a corkscrew, drilling the ground like a mortar and pestle. And Kuma was in the epicentre of all of it! The Warlord was crushed beneath the weight of Luffy's blow!

By the the time Luffy's arm stopped spinning, it was over.

…Then Luffy flew around like a deflating balloon.