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Chapter 46:
Loyalty
"I can't believe you lost her!" Nami raged, both Kaku and Kin'emon bowing before her. Their bodies shook as she growled, glaring down at the backs of their heads. Kin'emon had gone so far as to pull his swords from his sash and place them behind him, a sign of respect and/or submission the others were not familiar with. Both men had large bumps growing out of their hair, Kaku's usual baseball cap hanging from his. "If Velo does something to my boy, I swear to whatever deities you believe in that I will cook you both alive with a homemade desert before flash-freezing your near-dead corpses to leave you in perpetual pain for as long as the cryogenics last! You will watch time immemorial pass you by as you stand frozen in time, unable to act for the rest of your unnatural lives only to have your misery end the moment you're warm enough to move! Am I clear‽"
"Y-Yes!"
"I think I am starting to understand the dynamics of your ship," Smoker commented as he, Tashigi, Gin, and Sanji watched the chastising play out. "Is Straw Hat the true captain?"
"It's really not that complicated," Sanji said, breathing out a cloud of smoke. "Luffy really is our captain. He's the one who brought us all together and is why we're on the sea in the first place. Without Luffy, the Straw Hat Pirates wouldn't exist."
"An' that's iffin we'd even be alive iffin it wasn't for Don Luffy," Gin put in. "He's saved us all one way or another."
"Can you do something about your grammar?" Tashigi muttered.
"Excuse me? This is just how my folks talk."
"Wait, saved you?" the woman blinked. "Him? How could a pirate —much less Straw Hat— possibly save anyone?"
"The same way anyone else does," Sanji breathed. "By answering a cry for help, whether you know you're calling or not, though I can understand why you might hesitate with Luffy. We all know he's not the brightest, but that means he can sense what others miss. What all of us needed."
"Then explain it to us," Smoker grunted. "Currently, we are not arresting you because we cannot afford weakening ourselves while Velo and whomever she serves is at large, but we are still marines and will have to explain to our superiors why or how you all get away from us should you escape this island."
"It almost sounds like you're looking for an excuse to let us go."
"Of course we aren't!" Tashigi hissed. "As marines, we—"
"There is always a non-zero chance you all escape," Smoker interrupted. "Both your captain and your crew as a whole have defied the odds before. Another time would not be out of the question."
Sanji and Gin gave the man a sideways look, the latter chuckling to himself at the gobsmacked expression on the Marine Captain's face.
"So you're askin' for why we've each sworn loyalty to our captain?" Gin surmised. "Is that it?"
"I suppose so, yes," Smoker admitted. "Why? The Cat Burglar admitted that she became a pirate to map the world, but…" He trailed off as he studied the pirates' faces. Sanji had turned away, a hand hiding his mouth, while Gin's lips were pressed into a thin line. "Is that not true?"
"That's th' Donna's Dream," Gin clarified. "It ain't why she joined th' Straw Hat Pirates."
"Then why did she?" Tashigi demanded. "Skills like hers could have revolutionized marine travel had she joined the Navigation Corps!"
"She joined us because we broke her cage," Sanji supplied.
"Well, Don Luffy did, anyway," Gin commented.
"Broke her… cage?" the marine parroted.
"The fishman pirate Arlong invaded Nami's home island when she was just a little girl," Sanji began. "They took over with little resistance and started extorting the people. Anyone who couldn't pay lost their lives. For Nami's foster mother… It was either her or her daughters, and she made her choice." The color drained from Tashigi's face as she listened, but she dared not interrupt lest the chef stop. "They found Nami's first maps and decided that they would need her skills to take over the East Blue. She made a deal with them, that she would work for the Arlong Pirates as a thief and mapmaker until she could buy back her village to the tune of 100-million Beris. She was ten."
"Eight years did th' Donna struggle b'fore she started gettin' close," Gin picked up. "Not once did th' Marines come close t' Arlong Park. An' then she met Don Luffy, Zoro, an' Coby. She took off jus' b'fore Sanji an' I joined an' we took off after her. Arlong tried t' stab her in the back wi' th' help o' Captain Nezumi, a marine he was payin' off. He tried t' steal th' Donna's money an' shot Coby in th' process."
"Yeah, that was a day."
"Well, you are not lying to us," Smoker commented, crossing his arms. "Your story corroborates both Tri-Horn's testimony and the findings of our internal investigation. I will have you know former Captain Nezumi failed a surprise audit of Marine Branch 16, giving us the legal suspicion needed to start a formal investigation after our talk with Tri-Horn two years ago, not that we mentioned the source of our information. Last I heard, they were preparing a special cell for him in Impel Down and investigating all the individuals he arrested over the years. So far, at least three were taken into custody under false charges."
"I'm sure both Nami and Coby will be glad to hear it," Sanji grinned. "I'd lump the mosshead and Luffy into that, but that stupid swordbrain won't care and Luffy probably doesn't even remember him."
"Doesn't…" Tashigi echoed. "That was apparently a major event to his wife. How could Straw Hat not remember such a man?"
"Wasn't our top priority at the time," the blond waved off. "Now, Luffy will remember Arlong and most of the afterparty no problem, but he doesn't care so much about the details. Arlong made Nami cry and the party made her smile. That's what mattered to Luffy. He does whatever he wants and we're dragged along for the ride because he's our captain. That's all there is to it."
"So this lack of care for the details," Smoker said. "That is why Straw Hat did not take his grandfather's suggestion and join the Marines?"
"Thinkin' about it… yeah, prob'ly," Gin shrugged. "You marines gotta go where you're told an' do paperwork an' all that. Can't exactly see Don Luffy settlin' inta that life. He wants t' go where he'll go and answer t' no one. Well, 'cept the Donna, but I don' think he planned on that happenin'. He don' really plan on anythin'."
"Alright, stop wasting time!" Nami yelled, rounding on the talking quartet. "We have a child —my child— to find and a mad scientist to beat the shit out of!"
"Pardon my intrusion," a voice said, everyone in the room spinning to see the man had had appeared out of thin air by the wall. "It sounds like you have trouble with Velo, but she is not in possession of the Heir of Chaos anymore."
"You're—" Tashigi gasped.
"If you will make a deal with me, I can take you right to him."
Coby shrunk into his Human Mode and turned, offering the face-up Merry a hand. She smacked his palm with a smile.
"That…" she panted, "was awesome. I mean, did you see that? I love my life."
"I will never understand you battle maniacs," the young man muttered, trying and failing to get the bloody foam off his coat. "Eww."
"It's all about the adrenaline."
"Whatever. Do you think Usopp and Robin want our help?"
In the distance, Usopp screamed.
"I'll take that as a yes."
"The Hell is this thing‽" Usopp cried as a blast of fire melted another inert machine to his right. He dove the opposite way, hiding behind a half-dissolved husk. He threw a seed into the distance where a glowing sunflower sprouted, the dragon spinning around to dive toward it, attracted by the light, but Usopp knew he'd only bought them limited time. The sniper dropped his voice to a whisper. "Acid, fire, green blood, super-hard scales; what else can this thing do‽"
"Do you wish to hear my hypotheses?" Robin inquired with a whisper, the archaeologist crouched behind a different piece of scrap. Her third arm, bloomed from her side, held the dragon egg they'd taken from the red dragon of the Burning Lands snugly against her stomach. "Considering—"
"That was rhetorical and you know that!"
"Graaaww!" the dragon yelled, tearing the sunflower from its stem before chewing its flower to bio-illuminated mush between its razor teeth.
"What are we gonna do?" Usopp questioned. Robin opened her mouth. "And I don't mean defeat it in general. I mean, what are we gonna do right now before it tracks us down with its super smell or whatever and melts us into puddles or burns us alive?"
"Well, we have previously agreed that surrendering the egg in offering is not a valid plan," Robin commented.
"I'm starting to rethink that," the sniper muttered under his breath. Robin closed her eyes and crossed her arms, eyes blooming across the walls of the room.
"It appears both Coby and Merry have concluded their battles, so they should arrive and come to our aid forthwith. Within moments, presumably."
"Thank Goda," Usopp muttered, his body relaxing as if his bones had been removed. "Four-on-one are much better odds against an acid/fire dragon."
"Then we are convinced terminating the dragon is our best course of action?"
Usopp straightened. "Please don't tell me you want to try to keep it," he demanded. The man waited a moment, but she did not reply. "Robin, I swear—!"
"I have a weakness for cute things," she admitted.
"That thing is not cute!" he insisted, pointing a finger in the general direction of the beast angrily chewing on the sunflower. It continued to glow despite being pulverized, causing the dragon's stomach to glow from the inside. "In fact, it is big, scary, and wants to kill us!" Again, Robin did not say anything in the following pause. Usopp felt his eyes droop. "All those things classify as cute to you, don't they?"
"Not everything that wishes to kill us is cute," Robin defended.
"I notice you didn't say anything against big or scary."
Robin blinked.
"No wonder you have your eye on Zoro," Usopp sighed, dragging a hand down his face. "Big, strong, and stupid is just your type. I bet you think he's 'cute' too, don't you?" the long-nosed man questioned, moving his fingers to give air quotes around the word 'cute'.
"Such allegations do not require nor deserve any manner of response."
"We are here to help!" Merry announced, she and Coby appearing out of a Shave before their crewmates. "What's the situation?"
"We've got an angry dragon that wants the egg on our tail and Robin has the bright idea that it's cute like Zoro."
As one, Coby and Merry turned to study Robin who, for once, had the decency to blush under the scrutiny. She crossed her arms and turned away from them.
"It's the green," Coby said.
"Definitely the green," Merry agreed.
"I will not tolerate this slander of whatever preferences you perceive me to possess," Robin commented. "Such perceived preferences are, for the record, completely baseless and possessing no factual... basis. Rather, and decidedly more important than whatever perceived preferences you assume, I believe we currently find ourselves locked in combat with a mutual foe wishing to disembowel the lot of us before feasting on our innards in the most gruesome of manners, be us alive or dead for the process of… ah, feasting."
"She's repeating words," Merry stage whispered to the pink-haired Zoan. "We've finally thrown her off her groo—" Arms bloomed from both Coby and Merry's bodies, one each clamping down over their mouths while the others reached for sensitive or vital points of their upper bodies.
"Are you finished," Robin questioned, an evil gleam in her eye, "or do I need to punish you for disrespecting your elders?"
"Mmmff!" Coby tried, pointing at something behind her.
"Dragon!" Usopp translated. Robin released her grip on Coby and Merry instantly, the four pirates dodging to either side as a blast of fire tore through the air where they'd been only a second before. Usopp spun, firing another Skull Bomb Grass seed into the dragon's face, the exploding flora buying them a couple precious seconds.
"What can this thing do‽" Coby questioned.
"Acid and fire!" Usopp answered.
"It'll probably only use fire when it thinks it might hit the egg!" Merry suggested. "I'd explain but I don't think we have the time!"
"Veinte Fluers: Hold!" Robin yelled, arms blooming from the dragon's back. They reached upward, grabbing hold of the lizard's wings. Said lizard screeched, feeling the resistance. It beat its wings, sweat beginning to drip down Robin's face as she strained to keep her bloomed arms in place.
"Armor Mode!" Coby charged forward as his body grew, the bone plating of his Armor Mode forming in totality save the usual facemask that was his central horn. That part did not grow except for a plate the size of his dinosauric nose. "Come on, let's go! Dragon to dragon!"
"Graaawwww!" Green bubbled from within the dragon's maw, Coby rolling to the side as a stream of the liquid sloshed over the metal flooring, sizzling and eating at its integrity. Coby spun, augmenting his forward momentum with a touch of shave to give his punch a little extra oomph, a plan that seemed to work when his bone-plated fast caused the dragon's cheek to distort.
The dragon spun, careening away from its intended path. Its body whipped around, smacking Coby with its tail. The Zoan coughed as the air in his lungs was forcefully expelled and his feet left the floor. He was tough, however, so Merry didn't worry that the unexpected flight would injure him.
"This thing is nothing compared to the last one!" Merry laughed, kicking through the air with Moonwalk. "Watch out, Robin! Here comes my Cross Sail Typhoon!" Robin released her bloomed arms as Merry's X-shaped kicks converged on the beast. It roared as the sharpened air pelted it, the creature folding in on itself until the barrage subsided. "That should do it!"
"No it didn't!" Usopp warned as the dragon uncoiled, only superficial damage to its scales as proof of Merry's attack. "Green Star: Bamboo Javelin!
Usopp threw the seed in his hand, a web of bamboo roots growing under the dragon. It let out a roar and took to the air, outpacing the growing plants. It flipped in the air before Merry's white hair caught its eye. With a burst of speed, it appeared before the Klabautermann, its mouth and jagged teeth open to swallow her.
"Merry!" Usopp yelled as the dragon's mouth closed around her. The ship spirit gasped and interposed her hands, the sharp teeth biting into her currently-corporeal flesh.
"Aaaaggghhhh!" Merry cried out as red essence sprayed, her eyes screwing shut as pain assaulted her. Sure, she was used to dealing with all manner of pain considering how recklessly she could fight with her healing factor, but little she had experienced could compare to the bite of acid-covered dragon teeth. An orange glow began to emanate from the dragon's throat.
"It's going to breath fire!" Robin warned. "Merry, dematerialize!"
"Can't!" the Klabautermann grunted. "It'll crush my Heart if I do that!"
"Green Star: Rafflesia!"
A plant bloomed inside the dragon's maw, releasing a horrid stench that nearly made Merry gag. It's effect on the dragon was far more pronounced, the lizard instantly losing its grip on Merry as it began to twist and contort in the air, retching and hacking in its attempt to dislodge the putrid plant. Merry hit the ground hard, the horned girl panting as her spiritual manifestation began to knit itself back together.
"That's what you get when you try to fry Merry, you overgrown lizard!" Usopp yelled. His smirk fell as that orange glow became a bust of fire, burning the Rafflesia to ash. "Ah come on!"
"Usopp," Robin muttered as Coby blurred into view atop the dragon, his own broken horn in hand. "I believe I have a valid strategy."
"One Horn Style," Coby said from atop the dragon, holding his broken needle-like horn like a sword. "Broken Heaven!"
With a single move, Coby severed one of the wings of the dragon at the base. It screeched as it tipped, both monster and Zoan falling out of the air. The dragon twisted as they did, biting at the pink-haired young man only for the Zoan to keep it at bay with his horn. They hit the ground hard, shaking the structure.
"Shit!" Coby cursed, shuffling backward. Merry Shaved in, grabbing the roset under the arms and pulling him away from the dragon's maw.
"You sure this will work, Robin?" Usopp questioned, his hands tightening around his weapons of choice.
"It succeeded previously," the archeologist replied, shifting her aim slightly. "Simply hope I do not miscalculate."
"That just fills me with confidence," the sniper grumbled.
"Do you wish to conclude this conflict or not?"
"Fine, let's do this!" Usopp lowered his goggles, his knuckles turning white. Ahead of the pair, the dragon scuttled after Merry and Coby, its body off-balance due to the loss of its wing. Robin reared back her bloomed hands.
"Cientos Fluers!" Usopp and Robin yelled in tandem. "Tengu Spear!"
The massive hand Robin had created shot forward like a catapult, releasing its ammo. Said ammo screamed, white-knuckled grip holding sharpened bamboo straight. In moments, Usopp slammed into the dragon's side, one pole sinking into the lizard's glowing side while the other stabbed through the neck in a splash of green.
The dragon hacked and wheezed, stumbling from the force, but there was little it could do with a spear of bamboo through its throat. It's flailing threw Usopp off, the long-nosed pirate landing hard on his back. The dragon crashed into two machines before it seemed to lose control of its motor functions and fell forward. Its eyes, wide and scared, looked upon the four pirates as they surrounded its head, but it only had eyes for the small, green orb Robin held against her torso.
It gurgled something before closing its eyes and breathing its last. Coby kneeled, resting a hand on the dragon's snout.
"Hey guys?" he asked. "Are we the bad guys?"
"That thing and its friends attacked us!" Usopp pointed out.
"I mean, if it wanted the egg—"
"Coby, there is no clear morality to be found here," Robin said. "Usopp is correct; this dragon attacked us. Perhaps it did want the egg in our possession, but there is no guarantee handing it over would have concluded the fight, only that little Ace-chan would be disappointed. It was sent here by someone, egg or no egg, and we responded in self-defense."
"Man, I just want to get back to Sunny and take a nice, warm bath," Merry whined. "These things ate up a lot of our time. Mrs. Nami and the others already took out whatever they were fighting and are a little closer to us, and they've already caught up to Kaku. We need to get going before something else crazy happens."
"You've got my vote," Usopp nodded.
Coby shot a look back at the green dragon, offering his condolences, before turning away and following his crewmates toward the blips of light he could feel in his Haki.
Why, though, did he feel like he knew a few of those other lights?
"Nothing we've tried has worked so far!" Z-Grace complained, running a hand through Zoro's green hair as music drifted through the air from outside. "We're running out of ideas and every time they wake up, it takes longer and longer to put them to sleep. Brook and Sunny will have to maintain a full-blown concert at this rate. Damn!" She threw her notepad, the bound paper hitting the wall before falling to the floor with a soft wump.
"We need to review everything logically," Chopper advised from his desk, the human-reindeer standing on his swivel chair as he poured over all the notes he'd taken in his near-illegible shorthand. "If we try to rush this, it will only cause us to make more mistakes, and each one is another chance we could end up hurting the kids. There has to be a way to reduce the drug's effects without harming them. We just have to find it."
"Wah," B-Zoro suggested.
"We are not getting them drunk!" G-Billy yelped. "They're underage!"
"Wah, wah wah."
"I don't care if the island doesn't have drinking laws, Angry-Moss! And where would you even find enough alcohol to do that? Some of those kids have livers the side of your entire body."
"I could really use a drink right now," Z-Grace grumbled.
"Wah!"
"I can't drink alcohol, Angry-Moss! And you won't be for as long as you're in my body!"
"Actually, most avian species have higher tolerances for alcohol than humans in a purely mass-to-consumption ratio," Chopper pointed out. "Wait, that's not important right now! We need to get back on track! The children are a higher priority!"
"Ok, but we haven't managed to counter anything," Z-Grace commented. "In fact, everything we've tried has had no effect whatsoever, good or bad. I guess it's good that we haven't edged into the more dangerous chemicals yet, but we're getting there and each one is a risk I can't fully understand without my powers. At best, it's looking like the only thing we can do is sedate them until we can get them to a facility that can handle their withdrawal symptoms, and that's not even without some risk. It's not like we can just make NHC10 and give it to them!"
"Wah—"
"I don't want to hear it from you, Zoro! You're just here because I'm in your body!"
"And because I don't want him to get lost in my body," G-Billy added.
"Actually…" Chopper put in, a hoof on his chin. "Perhaps we can."
"I'm sorry, what‽" Z-Grace demanded. "Chopper, the Hell are you thinking?"
"Well, a lot of people suffer from nicotine addiction," he began. "That's one of the main reasons a lot of people can't stop smoking even if they want to. One of the top medical procedures with a high rate of success is weaning people off nicotine by giving them smaller and smaller amounts until the withdrawal they feel is manageable. The children have survived with NHC10 this long, so another dose is unlikely to harm them. Far less than the harm they might bring to themselves in their enraged states. Perhaps, in this case, it is better the devil we know than the devil we don't."
"Ok, but I come back to being unable to made NHC10. Even with my powers, I've never tried to make it." Z-Grace blinked. "Unless…?"
"Well…" Chopper muttered. "Remember when I said that Doctrine was one of the few people in the world who was allowed to experiment with imidogen hydrocarbine?" The others nodded. "Well, she also taught me how to do everything she could. Everything I could do was one less thing she needed to."
"And she taught you how to make it," B-Grace deduced.
"Yeah, she did," Chopper nodded. "Now, the process is really difficult. Everything has to be just right or it explodes. I assume the Master can do it because he has a lab set up or some automatic machine, but we don't have those things and Billy doesn't have the knowledge needed to make Grace's powers effective. That means I'll have to make it. Luckily, Drum Island was a winter island, so making it in the cold is exactly how I learned. Also makes it a little less explosive. It is a process, though, and will take me at least an hour. Maybe more if I need to make more for the giant kids."
"I don't think that will be a problem," Z-Grace said. "I did manage to get Billy to feel a rough reading for me. All the kids have similar levels of NHC10 in their systems, so the larger ones just store it to facilitate their growth. At least, that's the running theory. They probably still get the same amount as the others. The Master can't be so risky as to up the dosage on some of them just because of a slight success."
"Wah."
The group turned to B-Zoro before turning to the duck in Grace's body for translation. The fowl-in-a-female had gone a touch pale, pursing his borrowed lips together.
"He said," G-Billy began, "that the Master wouldn't unless this wasn't his first group of kids."
The group paused to absorb that idea.
"Oh, fuck," Z-Grace swore. "Billy, you're with me. I need to teach you the difference between amount and ratio. Chopper, get started on that hydrocarbide. Plan to need a lot of it. Zoro…" Z-Grace paused. "Uh… take a nap or something, I guess. There's not really much else you can help with."
"Wah!" B-Zoro stomped over, pulling Wado Ichimonji from its sheath with his beak before heading out the door.
"You better not stab my eye out!" G-Billy yelled after him. He sighed, turning back to the green-haired body possessed by the soul of a chemist. "Alright, Girl-Makes-Colors. What's the difference between amount and ratio?"
"Monet!" Velo yelled, her small feet stomping against the floor in ways that would be intimidating if she wasn't so small and, as a result, not all that heavy. Rather, her anger in such a small form looked more like the pouting of a child who had had their favorite doll removed from its proper place upon a shelf. This image was made a touch more intimidating, however, by the mouth of razor-sharp teeth she now sported and the way one of her eyes glowed red, a thin beam of light coming from said eye to sweep over the surroundings like a laser pointer. "Monet! Get your dreadful, bird-legged ass out here right now!"
There was no response, but Velo knew she was getting close. Her savior and teacher had had many dreadful students before and throughout her tenure with him, but only she had endured his painful training to achieve the rank of liaison. Her own Haki was weak —dreadful really, especially compared to any of their crew's main fighters— but it was there and that was all the confirmation her teacher had needed to know her loyalty and strength of will, especially when it allowed her to counter all the experiments that killed the others.
That Haki, dreadful as it was, still allowed her to know when she was getting close to her query, but Monet was always a difficult one to pin down. Law was simple enough. He had a boiling rage in his gut that made his spirit easy to track, he was just dreadfully hard to stop since he could pop away with his Devil Fruit powers. Caesar was a little easier since he was usually in his lab, but interrupting his experiments made one liable to be the next one, so Velo tended to use her Observation to know when to stay away from the Master. Monet, however, was always a wild card. Velo never could get a full grasp on the harpy's mental state save that she was usually cold, something that never sat right with Velo considering the verdette's false, sunny, dreadful disposition. It had always caused friction between the two women, made worse by Monet's enjoyment at ribbing the small biologist.
"Monet!" Something pinged in Velo's mind, the short scientist turning to an oft-untraveled corridor. It led to a storage area near Caesar's main quarters, though the gaseous man tended to use stimulants to keep himself awake and working through the night. He had expressly forbidden anyone, from his inner circle all the way down to the lowliest centaur, to enter his personal area. Despite this, Velo could feel Monet's presence nearby alongside that of one much stronger. It was a force the biologist had never felt here on the island, its strength comparable to several New World veterans she had previously met. Setting her jaw, Velo moved to the door and threw it open.
Within stood Monet with a tall man dressed in a long, white coat with buzzed, black hair. The pair looked up from a table between them, said table hosting a number of cubes each containing a beating heart. Both Monet and the man each held one, but Velo could not read the identifiers on the table for the empty places. For her lack of hands, Monet had balanced herself on one clawed foot, the other holding the heart between her talons. One wrong move and the claws could slice the organ into pieces.
"What is the meaning of this‽" Velo demanded, pointing a sleeve-covered finger at the verdette. "Monet, I hear you gave permission to sick some of my experiments on the pirates, and now I find you here with an unknown man‽ I hope you have a good explanation for this, or the consequences will be dreadful! Dreadful, I say!"
"Ah, Velo—" Monet began.
"That is Doctor Velo to you!"
"—this is someone I think you should meet." The harpy gestured to the man, ignoring the biologist's words. "I would like you to meet Marine Vice-Admiral Vergo. Vergo, this is Vallery Velo."
"My name is Velori Velo, you bird-brained cow." Velo felt her nostrils flare, her eyes unconsciously roving over Monet's form. It simply wasn't fair that Velo could alter the forms of others, yet her own was so small in nearly every sense. It had never really bothered her until her size prevented her from showing her savior the full extent of her gratitude. Monet, a harpy in the literal and metaphorical meanings, just had to flaunt her dreadfully-curved body like all those immodest geisha. At least the geisha wore more than a single foot of cloth. "How you fly with so much dreadful fat hanging off your chest, I will never know. Perhaps the air in your head counters the weight? That would certainly explain your dreadful mem—" Velo balked. "Wait, marine‽"
"You're such a jokester, Velo," Monet giggled, using one of her wings to cover her mouth. The man looked at her and quirked an eyebrow. "I do so enjoy our petty squabbles, but I'm afraid I don't have time for it today."
"Oh?" Velo questioned. "Are you finally taking wing and removing your dreadful presence form the island? Turning coat for the Marines?"
"I wouldn't put it that way, but yes." Velo's eyes narrowed at the pep in Monet's tone. Her spirit showed no deceit. Rather, she seemed genuinely happy for the first time since Velo had met her a little over a year ago. "Well, not for the Marines, anyway. But, you see, the way things are right now isn't that conducive to a farewell party. Do you think Vergo and I could enlist your help?"
"In any other circumstance, I might be the first one to see your dreadful posterior out the door," Velo frowned. "I cannot, however, condone the dreadful presence of a Marine Vice-Admiral." Velo flexed her hands under her sleeves, her fingers turning to wicked claws beneath. She knew she could not defeat Monet —much less a Vice-Admiral— but perhaps a surprise attack could buy her the time she needed to get back to the Master and warn him of this.
"Oh, Velo," Monet cooed, holding up the heart in her claws. Her talons tightened around it, squeezing the organ, and Velo felt a sharp pain in her chest. She doubled over, her knees buckling, as one hand unconsciously came up to press against the hole where her heart was meant to be. The other caught her fall before her head could hit the floor. She looked up, one eye screwed shut with pain as her other glared daggers into the Harpy. Monet giggled, releasing the pressure on the heart. Velo let out a sigh as the pain subsided.
"Now then," Monet smiled, "since you know where we all stand, I'll ask again." She leaned down, a chilling smile revealing sharpened teeth of snow that filled her maw. "Do you think Vergo and I could enlist your help?"
End of Chapter 46
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-SwordOfTheGods