Serious: The Dusk Pirates; Chapter 1: Dawn

A head was launched. Frank was one special zombie. While detached, his body parts acted interdependently and while his head was sleeping, his body was awake. The body used an attack that Frank normally calls Serve but couldn't right now since his head was dreaming of mermaids and zombies eating Zigfreed's head. The throw was powerful, but it wasn't aimed at Zigfreed, but at Maximillion. The throw hit Maximillion's side, pushing him away from the attack and making the cane hit the deck. After the captain was saved Frank's body jumped on board, holding his detached left arm like a sword, ready to intercept Zigfreed. "Your brain sure is tasty Zigfreed..." Frank's head mumbled from his dream.

"Do you really believe that I can hypnotise you only by looking at your eyes, Zombie-sama?" were the words of the Vice Admiral to the zombie that tried to save his captain from dying by his hand as soon as he noticed that his cane hit the deck instead. He said "I am just making you fall asleep with my eyes for effect. I can do this differently, too, you know.". Then, he started walking towards the body slowly, without showing any signs of fear. He said "Sleep, my dear dead body." as he launched a sleeping wave from his eyes that was aiming for the zombie's body so that it would completely fall unconscious. "There is nothing that can defeat my Nemu-Nemu powers. I am one of the strongest marines... You know...". The arrogance of Zigfreed had no limits as well as his power! How could this man be defeated?!

Meanwhile, the green creature that got out of the kitchen and nobody from the three battlers noticed it moved towards the captain and picked him up as he noticed that the Vice Admiral would hesitate at nothing in order to kill him. As soon as he picked him, he started running towards the ship of the Dusk Pirates in order to hide him from the enemy. The creature had experienced the cruelty of the government and the navy and so he could not stand seeing anyone from them winning a battle... Despite the fact that he did not know what kind of man Maximillion was, as long as he was the enemy of the "good" guys, he was his friend. Apparently, the creature believed that the enemy's enemy is a friend...

And as these things were going on, Koga was staring from the sea so that he would understand what was possibly happening, while Maximillion himself was sleeping on the green creature's hands!

Izumo walk out to the deck of the cruise ship, she got curious of what is happening outside since she can hears a lot of noise. When she arrives at the ship deck, what she saw certainly shocked her. "Oh my, what do we have here, a sleeping zombie? And what are you doing with that poor thing Vice Admiral?" Said Izumo with a seductive tones. Her hands ready on her dual fans that she keeps in her sash, ready to attack the evil vice admiral if he do something unmoral to the poor zombie.

As Zigfreed launched the sleeping wave from his eyes towards Frank, he turned towards the woman. He could see her trying to seduce him. However, Zigfreed was not fool enough to fall for tricks like these. He could understand from her words that she was supporting the zombie. She was probably another pirate scum, just like Maximillion and Frank. He sighed and said "Excuse me, my dear lady... But this is none of your business." as he looked at her eyes with his eyes, that had turned into red. The man had already activated his Devil Fruit ability and by looking at his eyes would make the woman fall asleep. Zigfreed had trained the ability very much and it was a child's game for him to make the others fall asleep just by looking at him activating his ability.

Meanwhile, on the Dusk Pirates' ship, the green creature is slapping Maximillion in order to wake him up. Unfortunately for the creature it could not talk and so it could not cause any fuss to wake him up. Plus, except from that, if he made a fuss he could draw the attention of the Vice Admiral and he did not want that... Zigfreed was irritated with the crew and wanted to have them eliminated all. He was planning to annihilate anyone that helped the pirates and now the green creature as well as Izumo were on his black list along with Frank and Maximillion.

Doc Q was on the cruise ship exploring the wild life across the grand line. Then some people decide to pick a fight with a vice admirl. Q's eyes immediately fell on the zombie. A living breathing rotting corpse. This could have the answer to his research. To be able to cure every diease might be hidden within this zombie. Q couldn't let the vice admiral hurt them anyway. As a doctor it was his duty to help people, and these guys need help. Q drew a purple greenish chemical orb from his hand.

As Franks body got hit by the sleep wave and begun to fall under something bit at it's ankle. It was nothing other than it's own head!
Frank's head was dreaming of eating Zigfreed's head and was biting as a result, luckily biting his own ankle. The bite was painful enough to throw the body back into consciousness. "That tastes like dirt..." Frank's head mumbled. The body than took the head off the ground and grabbed it tight. He than launched it at Zigfreed, hoping that hitting the man would wake the head up and hopefully even hurt Zigfreed a bit. After the throw The body started running at Zigfreed, aiming another Zombie bat swing at the man's head.

Izumo suddenly feels sleepy, her eyes seems too heavy to keep open. She still held her dual fans tight and when she seems to lose consciousness, she hit her own feet with her dual fans to fight away the sleepy feelings with pain. "I don't know what are you doing to me but that's a creepy power you have." Said Izumo to the Vice Admiral. Izumo then took out her dual fans and leaping high to the air. "Second Dance: Summer Romance!" And as Izumo shouted the name of her technique, she threw her dual fans to the Vice Admiral.

"Indeed it is... Well, you many not have heard it from Maximillion-sama so allow me to introduce you my Devil Fruit ability..." were the words of the Vice-Admiral to the people who were all attacking him for their own reasons. However, before he started explaining the ability, he looked at the fans coming towards him. With an evil smile on his face, Zigfreed moved his cane upwards and said "Shockwave Smash!" as he smashed the dual fans with a shockwave echanced attack from his cane, sending them towards Quincy who was about to attack with a greenish chemical orb from his hand. Apparently, Zigfreed had noticed those who were about to attack him and he would show no mercy to them... Immdiately, after that, he used a Shockwave on the ground from his cane that gave him enough force to jump and dodge the zombie's attack.

After he was done with defending himself, the Vice Admiral continued his speech. He said "My Nemu-Nemu no Mi abilities allow me to induce sleepness... A marvelous ability, is it not... Beauty-sama?" as he turned his head towards a bystander who had been watching at the battles terrified. In no time, the bystander fell on the ground sleeping. That was the real power of Zigfreed's fruit. Then, he continued talking "You know... My mastery over my devil fruit is excellent. You know, Maximillion-sama fell on the ground with just a glimpse. Do you know why? Because I used much of that mastery on him... And you are still standing. Do you know why? Because I only used a small portion of my sleeping powers to you. I wanted you see your beautiful eyes longer than those creeping eyes of Maximillion-sama... I hope you understand.". Afterwards, he looked at Izumo's eyes once again. He said "Can you sleep... My sleeping beauty?" as his eyes turned red and he used his ability with more power than before to make the woman fall asleep, while he sent a small sleeping wave towards Frank to make him fall asleep once again.

Meanwhile, at the ship of the Dusk Pirates... After Maximillion got slapped from the green creature for quite a while, he finally woke up. The sleeping attack he received from Zigfreed before was so strong that it was very difficult for him to wake up. Hopefully, he did. As soon as he woke up, he looked at the creature. He asked "Where am I?" as he could not understand what was happening at all, in the begining. However, after a while the memories of his second encounter with Zigfreed came back and he remembered. And then, he looked at the green creature and asked "And who are you and what are you doing on my ship?!" with a voice that demanded the answers immediately.

The green creature moved his hands quickly to show that he was not an enemy. On the small screen on his forehead, three letters and one number appeared. The three letters were R, A and M while the number was 2. Apparently, the cyborg was telling the man his name. He was R.A.M. 2!

((OOC: How did he dodge the head and swing?))

Oh, what the hell?
What was this ship, cursed? So curious.... At the same time, so not...
Hector looked up to see what was going on, but couldn't make out anything. There seemed to be some kind of fight going on.
"Hey, turtle. Can you get me up there? I want to see that.... Not that I care, I mean, whatever. I don't give a damn about that scum. At all. Just so you know."
But if he could help them, then he would prefer them alive.... Especially since, even though he'd never admit it openly, Hector had been looking forward to talking to those humans.

Koga smiled as soon as he listened to Hector's words. It seemed like the merman was eager to have a conversation with the Dusk Pirates, at least. In no time, the turtle grabbed the merman on his shell. He said "Hold on tight!" as he jumped high in the air and appeared on the ship of the Dusk Pirates. There, he could see Maximillion and R.A.M. 2, the strange creature that picked Maximillion away from the Vice Admiral's clutches. He asked "What the...?" as he looked at the captain yawning.

Maximillion sighed. He said "I have no time to explain..." as he looked at the cruise ship. Koga looked towards the merman whom he left on the deck. He said "Something weird is going on. Where is Frank? And... Do we have a party?". What an idiot turtle! He could not understand anything after all! And as all of these happened, the Vice Admiral was battling Frank, Quincy and Izumo in order to teach a lesson to all of them for attempting to help the pirate captain. With Maximillion awoken, what would happen next? And how would the three people who tried to protect Maximillion be saved by the Vice Admiral's clutches?

At the same time, R.A.M. 2 was watching at the turtle. He thought "That creature is very strange... It is green... small... and it talks...a lot...". Look who's talking! At least Koga did not have a tiny screen on his forehead nor lacked a mouth... Not to mention that he shared the same green color with the cyborg... However, that was what the cyborg liked at the strange creature. If Koga wanted to meet him, R.A.M. 2 believed that they could become very good friends.

What was it with that turtle? How could it even.... That was physically impossible, he was sure of it! But what was the use crying about that, he was here now.
Hector looked around on the ship. Yup, looked like a pirate ship to him. Not that there was such a big difference, but above all, the flag kind of gave it away. As soon as their allegiance was clear, he let his eyes wander to the persons on deck.
"Wow, what a freakshow."
A weird thing to say, considering he was the one lying on the floor and was sure to have the disadvantage, not to mentiong he was the one who was half fish, but those thoughts didn't even pass his mind. He was busy being oroud for once. His mother would be so proud of him for saying that!
"You're the captain?"
He looked at the strange human wth the brown hair, his eyes narrowing. why was the captain here when the crew was fighting? His parents had always been the first to attack! Humans. How cowardly. How fascinating.... But msot of all, disgusting. Yeah. Totally.

Maximillion sighed as he looked at the merman. He was definitely weird. He called the Dusk Pirates a freakshow while himself was half human half fish. However, Maximillion did not want to respond to that. There were some more important matters. He had to find a way to save the other three from the clutches of the Vice Admiral. If he did not, he would regret it for his whole life. His bad behavior led to having his two former crews disbanded. He would not allow that to happen for the third time. As he did not want to leave the merman waiting, he said "Yes I am the captain... " as he prepared (didn't jump yet) himself to jump to the cruise ship and have the third rematch with the Vice Admiral for the sake of his nakama, this time..

Meanwhile, Koga who was watching around could understand a few things. It looked like the crew was engaged in a battle. But who were the other two people standing next to Frank and who was that mysterious marine? He could not know. However,the most intriguing thing was the green cyborg that was staring at him. He asked "Who are you looking at you green freak? Huh?" with a "somewhat" irritated yet funny voice.

Before Frank's body fell asleep he performed one last technique. The technique would be named Scatter if Frank's head could call it. All of Frank's limbs got detached from his body and were scattered around the deck, seemingly asleep too. Frank's head however, woke up after hitting the railing. "Wow I had the best dream eve... YOU STILL HERE ZOMBIE-RACIST?" Frank said after seeing Zigfreed. He didn't notice any of the other fighters nor the green creature that carried Maximillion, he only saw Zigfreed in his rage.

"Woah woah woah, wait! Slow it down! Where do you think you're going?"
Hector hadn't come here to be treated like the living disadvantage he was when he was out of water! He had come here to.... help, he guessed. Or to watch. Both was bad.
"I mean, I know where you think you're going, but...."
He took a deep breath.
"You didn't really just get me here to just let me watch, right? I mean, woah, just because I can't move that much doesn't maen you get to be racist!"
Said one of the Stavros, the most racist pirate clan ever.... But as long as it was to prove his point... He hadn't even looked at the other ship yet, neither at the enemies, nor at the possible allies on it. And he wasn't sure if he wanted to do this, actually. At all. But it'd men he'd get to beat up humans, so... that was good... right? Right? Even though he did it to help other humans.

Before Maximillion jumped on the cruise ship, he listened to the words of the merman. He sighed and he said "I am going to do what I have to do... But before I go, I have to say a few things, first. I want you to join my crew, merman. I always searched for strong mermen, mermaids, fishmen or fishwomen. You see, I want a strong underwater member...". Then, he smiled and continued talking "As about your racist comment... Do you really believe I am a racist? Look at that stupid turtle! I doubt anyone else who take such a strange creature in the crew. Except from me of course. Now, if you really want to join my crew, you can either stay here or follow me right on this cruise ship. I have a grudge to settle. That might give you the chance to see the strength of the Dusk Pirates..." and in no time, he jumped on the cruise ship.

On the other side, Koga was about to interact with the cyborg. However, before he started speaking, he looked at the ship and noticed the Vice Admiral who was battling two other people, as well as Frank. He said "What the hell is going on over there?!" as he jumped towards the cruise ship, before saying what he wanted to say to R.A.M..

Then, the cyborg moved at the merman. As he could not speak at all, a message appeared on the tiny screen on his forehead. He was saying "Do you need some help?" while giving him his hand to grab him.

Meanwhile, at the cruise ship the Vice Admiral looked at the zombie scattering all of his body parts as he fell unconscious thanks to his sleeping wave. Only the head was awake, but he did not care at all. What could a head do at all. Nothing... And so, he continued with his Sleep attack that aimed for Izumo in order to make her fall asleep.

And as he stared at the female's eyes, Koga and Maximillion arrived, only to see Frank's body parts scattered and the head seperated talking, while the Vice Admiral was attacking the other two people who wanted to help Maximillion. The battle on the ship was intense!

This time Izumo can't fight away the sleepiness that she's felt. Her eyelids slowly closed, her body weakly falling down to the deck floors, her consciousness has long faded away. And as she falling down to the floors so does her dual steel fans that she's been holding tight all the time.
"Seems like...this is where my journey...will end. Too bad...I still want to do...one last...dance." Said Izumo before she's completely falling asleep in front of the Vice Admiral.

Qunicy got up from the ground wiping himself off after getting hit with that attack. It was cruel of the vice admiral to redirect Izumo's attack at him. Now seeing a cyborg and even a talking turtle, Quincy grew more interested in these pirates. They even had a merman which Quincy had always thought to be a mytical creature. The grand line was home to lots of interesting creatures, and Quincy couldn't let the vice admiral hurt them anymore.

He drew eight more chemical orbs from his hands jugggling eight of them before tossing them at the vice admiral.

"Don't worry Beauty-sama..." the Vice Admiral said as soon as he watched at Izumo falling asleep. "You will have plenty of time to dance... along with chains... inside a cage... You will be a perfect show for the marines in the jail of Navarone." he continued while he touched her perfect hair and then her face with his right hand. The Vice Admiral was not planning to kill her, fortunately for her. Instead, he would capture her and put her in the jail. How could he kill such a beauty after all? It would be cruel... Very cruel.

However, on the other side, he would have no regrets if he exterminated the other men who attacked him. Now, only Quincy was left. Frank was on the ground and in a sleeping state. He had fallen down thanks to his Nemu Nemu powers and soon Quincy would fall, too. As he watched at the chemical orbs coming towards him, Zigfreed moved his cane forward. He smiled as he said "Shockwave Pierce!" while moving the cane quickly at the orbs like it was a rapier, piercing them in no time, before he received the attack. Then, he looked at Quincy and said "Orbman-sama... Why would you risk your life for some people you do not know? Now, sleep and dream of saving them... Muhahahaha." as he looked at his eyes while his own turned into red. He was activating his Nemu Nemu powers once more...

Maximillion who watched all of these happening was about to attack so that he would stop the man. However, Koga decided to make his move. The talking turtle said "You bastard! What did you do to Frank?!" as he grabbed his shell and prepared to use it as a weapon. He said "Shell Stamp!" as he got out of his shell and started running towards Zigfreed in order to strike him with it. However, Zigfreed changed his target. Before activating his Nemu Nemu powers on Quincy completely, he turned his head and looked towards the turtle. Koga, who was ready to attack from behind looked at the man's eyes and immediately fell on the floor unconscious. Zigfreed laughed once again and said "You are so cute Turtle-sama when you are sleeping."

Then, he turned towards the doctor. He said "Now, let me finish with you..." as he looked at his eyes again and activated his Nemu Nemu abilities.

With Koga defeated there were only two people left on the cruise ship that could fight against Zigfreed... Maximillion and Quincy. Would they be able to beat the Vice Admiral or would they fall from his attacks? One thing was certain... Zigfreed did not seem eager to lose and he had not received a single injury yet...

Zigfreed was way too arrogant in Frank's opinion, As long as Frank was awake hope was here! Zigfreed slowly progressed into Frank's trap, he was surrounded by Frank's limbs that were playing asleep. Frank's body was the one who fell asleep and by detaching the limbs he managed to save them. Of course Zigfreed didn't know that. Frank's right arm reached for Zigfreed's shoulder, tapping it with it's finger. "Oh Freedy!" Frank said from the deck's corner, a big smile flashing on his face. As soon as Freed will turn around Frank's left arm will send a punch at his jaw from the other side, sending him directly at Frank's right leg that will kick his stomach, making him double over for Frank's right arm to smack him on his head, sending him towards the deck. From there Frank's left leg will step on his guts. Will Frank's plan work? It was Frank's last trick.

"This is pathetic, Zombie-sama. Do you believe I did not notice that? I just wanted to see how far you would make it... It was your mistake to move your body when your head was sleeping... If you did not, I would probably did not see this coming." were the words of the Vice Admiral to the zombie as soon as he felt the tapping on his shoulder. "And do not try sneak attacks. You smell horrible just like a corpse. You gave away yourself, Zombie-sama." he continued before making his move.

In no time, the Vice Admiral made a surprising move. Instead of moving, he started speaking. However, he was not actually speaking... He was singing instead! He sang:

"Sail on silvergirl,
Sail on by.
Your time has come to shine.
All your dreams are on their way.
See how they shine.
If you need a friend
Im sailing right behind.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind. "

As soon as he was done with the song, he said "Sleeping...Song..." and stopped speaking. He said "Zombie-sama... If you can still hear me, although I doubt it... When I use the sleeping song, anything at the radius it is heard falls asleep. It does not matter that you are seperated... My song can reach all of your body parts... This is the power of my Nemu Nemu no Mi! Muhahahahahaha."

Meanwhile, while Maximillion listened to the song, he was prepared to attack. However, ever since the first words reached him, he could understand that his strength was being drained and that he wanted to sleep. "Damn you... Zigfreed..." he said as he fell on the floor once more, asleep. He was not the only one to fall asleep, though. Any innocent people around who happened to watch the battle also fell asleep by listening to the song. That was the great power of the Nemu Nemu no Mi.

Frank's limbs stopped at midway. They fell to the ground one after the other, All sleeping. "I'm gonna eat your brain, Zigfreed-bastar..." Frank said before his head gave away and he started snoring. Frank was defeated.

Hector watched on from the other ships deck. It still wasn't too late to turn around and leave those losers to their fates.
But then again, what would he do next? Swim around the seas some more? Look for trouble? Maybe a way to finally become a marine? He didn't even know why he'd want that....
He was deep in thought, only following the fights with one eye, when he noticed something... interesting... something that made him jerk back and hide behind the reling, even though he knew there was no point in that.
the turtle had said there weren't any women in the crew!
He covered in fear of something he couldn't understand, something he knew would definitely be bound to happen to him when a human female was around... In fact, it was happening already, as he found himself replaying that one small shot he had of her over and over again.
Falling down, her dark, long hair being played by the wind, her skin so light, so soft, her whole being so graceful, yet in a way, so obscene in the way she presented it. The marine catching her, touching her face, her hair. It made him angry to see it... He needed to get that smut out of his head right now! Right now! He had to leave before something bad happened!
But then, he heard something. A song was being sung, by a man.... He knew it, he had heard it before, but where.... Why was he....
His eyelids grew heavy. Why was he so.... tired....
Slowly, he slid to the ground, his body relaxing, and he thought he heard a girls voice singing along with the song, a long lost memory he tried to hold, but couldn't before he slipped into the realm of dreams.

Quincy fell asleep under the vice admiral's powers. He fell upon the deck sleeping unable to fight.

Zigfreed started laughing as he looked at everyone falling asleep thanks to his Devil Fruit ability. These pirates were really ridiculous. Of course, a few people were able to deal with his sleeping powers. For years, Zigfreed had been fighting on missions without getting a single scratch. That was the termendous power that his fruit held. He could defeat his opponents easily just by making them fall asleep. And he did the same to the Dusk Pirates and the people who decided to help them. He said "Time to say goodbye to this world... Maximillion-sama..." as he started moving towards him in order to finish him off.

Meanwhile, Maximillion was watching a weird dream. He could see all those people who fought for him. He could see Izumo and Quincy, as well as R.A.M. 2, Hector and his crew. These seven were being attacked by Zigfreed and they were all unable to do anything. The more they struggled, the worst their results were. They could not lay a single scratch on him. And that was not only that. As they battled him, he slowly went through a transformation, transforming into a demonic creature. As soon as he transformed, he started killing everyone around, right in front of Maximillion's eyes. He saw a transformed Zigfreed biting Izumo's shoulder and drinking her blood, he could see him cutting the head of Quincy, smashing Koga's shell, cutting the fish tail out of Hector's body, breaking R.A.M. 2's screen and destroying him and eating Frank's body parts. The only one who was not dead yet was him. And he had to take care of Zigfreed...

As soon as he watched at this nightmare, the captain stood up. He was not awake. He was just dreaming of doing that and his desire to do it made his body move for a few seconds. He pointed towards Zigfreed while still sleeping and said "You will not hurt anyone!" as he launched a shockwave with all of his strength that hit the surprised Vice Admiral on the chest and sent him quite a few meters behind. Zigfreed looked at his clothes. The shirt he had been wearing was destroyed. Hopefully, his cane was okay. He did not expect that to happen. Maximillion was dreaming of defeating him and he desired that so much that his body acted on its own for a little bit. He pointed towards Maximillion with his cane and said "Maximillion-sama... You should be sleeping...". At that time, Maximillion started snoring and fell on the ground. It was that time that Zigfreed understood that it was his dream that moved his body. Seeing that the pirate captain was so eager to defeat him, he said "Maximillion-sama... You are a worthy opponent. You have done something that nobody could not for years. As a result, I will reward you with your life... As well as the rest of your friends.".

Afterwards, he grabbed everyone who helped Maximillion and the captain and moved them on the ship of the Dusk Pirates. As they were all sleeping, they could not resist. Then, he moved back to the cruise ship. Much to his surprise, everyone had listened to his song. Everyone was asleep. He was the only one awake. He had to move the ship by himself. However, before he did so, he left a letter to the people of the Dusk Pirates. A letter that would give them all a choice for their futures...

---

One day later, one the ship of the Dusk Pirates... Maximillion woke up in his room and found a letter on his chest. He looked around and started reading it. Then, he tried to find the cruise ship but he could not. It was gone. The only things he could find from the ship was a woman, a strange green robot and a doctor... The merman was also sleeping on the deck. Zigfreed had spared their lives and gave them a message... But what could the message be?