Serious: The Night Terror Pirates Chapter 1: Homecoming

The large pinkish blob, that was also known as Momo Kahuna, slowly approached Rupert and Duncan. He was doing his best not to get dragged into the fights that took place, so to not attract the attention of slave traders to himself, but Rupert seemed shocked from the chaos that ran around and Momo wanted to try and help him. He grew to like the guy. spotted the doctor just when he crashed down with the woman in his grip, managing to see the woman getting paralyzed by the seemingly harmless doctor.

He tapped Rupert's shoulder weakly, but since he was a 100 kilo fishman, the tap would feel like a heavy weight for a light man as Rupert. "First time you took care of someone?" Momo asked, trying to sound like a big-brother figure. "You'll get over it, trust me, I can't even remember the first time I punched someone, although I'm sure he didn't have all of his teeth afterwards" Momo admitted with a smile. "Plus, you showed some impressive loyalty for a cew you were just apart of for about 5 minutes".

Rupert was clinging to Duncan tightly who was looking at the woman he'd paralysed over his shoulder. When Momo the friendly guy from before showed and said to him "First time you took care of someone?" Rupert turned around and nodded still tightly clinging to Duncan perhaps too tightly but he didn't know nor care as he was shaking a little or at least he felt he was but didn't know how much it looked like he was shaking on the outside.

When Momo admitted that "You'll get over it, trust me, I can't even remember the first time I punched someone, although I'm sure he didn't have all of his teeth afterwards" Rupert didn't really pay that much attention to it as he was still a bit over whelmed with what he'd just done. Duncan looked at Rupert who looked to be a little traumatised and licked his cheek to relive him from his zombified state of trauma. Rupert looked at Duncan and gave a little smile before rubbing noses with him and looking back up to Momo who said to him, "Plus, you showed some impressive loyalty for a cew you were just apart of for about 5 minutes".

Rupert smiled at Momo realising he had shown loyalty to this crew even though he didn't really know any of them. Rupert liked how Momo had made him feel better about himself and replied, "Thanks Momo, that actually makes me feel better, despite the pain in my groin and stomach it does make me feel a hell of allot better. You should join the crew too, I'm sure Alex would want you to join after all your a freaking fishman who was brave enough to enter Sabaody with out disguising yourself and not many fishmen do that. In fact your the 1st I've seen, although to be totally honest your the first fishman I've ever seen." Rupert smiled at Momo then turned Duncan to face him.

Duncan still being clung to tightly by Rupert looked at Momo with his tongue dangling out. Rupert brought Duncan closer to Momo hoping he wouldn't bite him as he wanted Duncan to like Rupert like he did right now since Momo seemed likw a really nice and out of all the guys who had currently joined the crew un-intimidating excluding his size. Duncan sniffed at Momo then smiled as he tried to lunge forward at him Rupert held Duncan back as he feared he may bite him until Duncan got close enough and instead of biting him just licked him. Rupert noticed this and put Duncan down kneeling beside him and watched as Duncan kept licking Momo's leg. Duncan liked fish not eating it.

Rupert looked up at Momo smiling and said, "He likes you."

Duncan continued licking happily at his leg.

Alexander

Alex caught his balance and tried to find Phantom again. He spotted the other captain running down the tree away from him. It looked like he didn't want to stick around where Alex could fly rings around him. Even so, he wasn't on the ground yet.

Alex tucked in his wings and dove towards Phantom, his sword outstretched towards the other's back. Call a sixth sense or just a good guess, but either way, Phantom spun around and blocked Alex's sword with his own just as he was about to be stabbed. He continued running down the tree, now going backwards, and dueled with Alex the whole way. Their swords flashed and blurred around each other as the two rapidly approached ground level. They had almost reached the ground when they both swung their swords with all their strength, blowing each other in opposite directions. Both of them hit the ground on their feet and skidded backwards.

For a moment, the two of them just stayed there, staring at each other. Then, to Alex's great surprise, Phantom reached down and took hold of his second sword's hilt. It looked like Alex had finally earned Phantom's full attention.
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John

David simply raised his other hand and created a second mirror, this one being large enough to protect the whole front of his body. Unlike with the mirror that had been used to block the sword, this mirror was big enough that a mirror image of the cross-shaped air blade could be seen on its surface. The cross-shaped air blade struck the mirror and simply vanished. Just like before there was no indication that the mirror had been damaged in any way.

David dismissed the first mirror he had created, causing it to disappear. The second mirror he raised and held out towards John so that his image now appeared on it. David reached around to the front of this mirror and actually put his hand inside of its surface. Suddenly he froze and looked out beyond the gathering of pirates.

"Hmph," David glared fiercely and pulled his hand back out of the mirror. "It looks like you just got lucky," he told John. "Count your blessings. This fight is over." David dismissed his second mirror and started to walk away towards Phantom. "Captain!" he shouted. "Looks like it's time for us to pull out!"
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Wrath

For a moment it might have looked like Wrath had Justin trapped, but never once did Justin's bored expression waver. Each of his legs bent outwards using their double-knees to slip easily around Wrath's arms and continued on their path towards Wrath's chest. But Justin stopped. Instead of continuing to try and complete his twin-legged kick, he retracted his legs and flipped backwards into a crouch, staring past Justin. For the first time he looked genuinely worried.

"Man..." Justin whispered. "...it doesn't look like any of us are going to be able to finish today."
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Surrounding area...

Before anything else could be done or said, the world exploded into chaos. Pirates around the edges of the area began screaming and the sounds of blades cutting through flesh could be heard. Hundreds of Marines burst out of their hiding places and began firing down into the crowd. Bounty hunters of all kinds appeared and dove into the pirates, hacking and slashing through their ranks.

Then the true horror appeared. Ten strange creatures* surrounded the grove and stepped into the pirates' ranks, easily cutting through them. Each of these creatures was human-shaped and sized, their bodies wrapped in dark cloth. Their arms appeared to be fairly ordinary, but their hands were not even vaguely humanoid. They were scythes. None of these creatures looked like they were in a hurry. On the contrary, each of them was walking through the pirates, not even bothering to run as they struck them down left and right.

(OOC: *These guys are the Reaper Unit. Do not call a hit on any of these. They're kind of like Pasifistas. Not quite that strong, but close.)

Exular's face wavered, seemingly worried that he may not be able to defeat this opponent. As he fired, Exular released smoke from his arms . The smoke was light and may not be noticed by Benjamin. Exular smirked lightly. Hoping not to give away his plan, Exular stopped smirking and raised his arms so that it looked as if Exular was aiming from Benjamin's eyes. Exular began to speak; "You may be able to stop the bullets if I fire at the holes, but can you stop it hitting your eyes?"
Exular's plan was to distract Benjamin by shooting at him while the smoke creeped up towards him. As the smoke arrives at the mouth of the vaccum, Exular would make the smoke dense, hoping to block the vaccum. As Exular was about to fire, he became distracted by the sound coming from behind him. It seemed as if he didn't need to distract Benjamin, the strange creatures probably would.

As Momo watched Duncan lick his palm, he was swallowed into deep thoughts about Rupert's advice. He already admitted he was a pirate, he'll have to join a crew at some point. Plus, this Alex guy seemed to have a plan on making his impact on the world, and that impact could very well lead to Momo's goals being achieved. And in addition, having a non-racist guy such as Rupert to talk with was a given bonus. "I might..." Momo answered carefully, but he couldn't elaborate any more since chaos broke out. Pirates began screaming, and blood was smeared on the ground and everything around. Smell of gunpowder filled the air as muzzle flashes and gunning sounds were heard from all around. Different people slashed through pirates with greedy looks. But the most terrifying thing of all was the presence of ten monsters. Not monsters, he shouldn't call them that, after all, he could be considered a monster as well. They were 'weird', that's what they were. "We're in deep trouble now... you should stick with your crew" Momo said.

The situation was ridiculously bad. Momo was trapped in a ring of death, with marines and bounty hunters attacking from all sides. He didn't even have a bounty! But these people seemed to care very little, as their bullets flew past his large body from all sides. It was in times like these the Momo thanked himself for being able to fight. Taking out a white flag wasn't going to free him from this mess, he had to defend himself. He took a wide stance and opened his palms, slowly retreating to the middle of the ring, were living pirates could still be found. "My first real pirate activity and I already miss you Kusabana island..." Momo mumbled.

Wrath looked back and saw the crowd of pirates slowly get smaller... and smaller... and smaller. Whatever the new enemy was, it was formidable. The most scary thing was, they were just walking through the crowd. His battle with Justin would have been a lot more troublesome.

A bullet flew toward Wrath's face. He narrowly tilted his head to the side fast enough to dodge it. It had obviously come from one of those bounty hunters at the edge of the crowd. Wrath turned back toward Justin. "Maybe it is best we pick this up later. However, if you continue to oppose my goals..." Wrath's pupils disappeared from his bright green eyes for a second. "I will not hesitate to cut you down where you stand."

As a final warning, Wrath pointed his stiletto at Justin's face. He sheathed his stiletto and took a look up toward the tree branches.

"Pull out? No, my friend David..." John said with an evil look on his face, as he raised his sword and pointed towards the man with its edge in order to continue the battle that had just stopped. "You are not going anywhere... This battle has started and I will not let you run away..." he said with an evil voice, as he used his Slide technique to get in front of David in no time. "I believe you have overestimated yourself, mister Latona. It is a shame that a pirate like you has got to meet me in the first place... It is a shame that a pirate like you has got to insult me... If we had never met with each other, you could have continued sailing with the Phantom Pirates. However, fate has brought you in front of me... And it is my duty to accept the will of fate. I have to bring an end to your sinful existence... You no longer have the right to live... It is a matter of time until you will be burning in the pots of hell.".

Then, the swordsman moved his sword forward like he was stabbing the air itself, very fast and without causing any sound, for an unexplained reason. It seemed that he was attacking on the air... What was he doing was a mystery. Probably, the others would not get to understand what he was planning. It could be a demonstration of his swordsmanship, as he did before... Or, it could be something else as well.

With slow steps, the man started approaching David. He walked slower and slower until he reached a distance of ten meters away from him. He said at that time. "I will not even give you the chance to figure this out..." as he quickly swang his sword that was being carried with his right hand. After he swang it, an air blade that was shaped like a cross started moving towards David. The attack was his singature cross blade...

And while the attack was five meters away from the first mate of the "Phantom Pirates", John did something unexpected. He raised his left hand above and titled his fingers... Unnoticed, a sword appeared behind David that was attempting to stab him through the heart while he was being distracted from the Cross Blade. That stab did not make any sound at all. It was just like his previous action... It was just like the stab that John performed on the air seconds ago. The pirate was finally using his Devil Fruit ability... He was repeating the action that he performed earlier in order to ultimately kill David while he was being distracted by the Cross Blade attack. Would the trick of the "Priest of the Apocalypse" work?

Alexander

At the sound of the destruction coming from around them, Alex and Phantom's looked away from each other and scanned the field. Almost immediately their gazes rejoined and many unspoken words passed between them. Slowly, Phantom nodded to Alex, who nodded back. Phantom's hand left the hilt of his second katana and he rushed off to gather his crew.

Alex turned away, keeping his sword out and at the ready. Phase one had ended. Phase two was where things really got dangerous. He had started a war, one that could not end well. Alex grinned. It was all happening just the way he wanted it to. And now he had to find those guys who said they would join him.

Alex considered how he could find them in this mess without attracting to much attention. The only thing he could come up with was to walk around randomly and hope that he ran into them. Yeah, like that would ever happen. It seemed that the time had come for him to unleash his back-up plan.

Alex pulled out a Den Den Mushi he had bought earlier that day. He lifted the mic to his lips and said, "Begin."

Exular

Benjamin was no longer paying attention to Exular, but was instead looking around at the destruction. Though he did not show it, he was mildly surprised by all of this death going on. He didn't like death, despite having killed many people in the past. However, his attention was brought back to his current situation when his mechanical arms stopped gathering air. It seemed that this Exular had stuffed his vacuums with smoke. That was easily rectified.

"Reverse stream," Benjamin said. Some of the wind in his arms burst back out, dissipating the smoke. "Original hypothesis proven. Wind is the weakness of smoke.*" Benjamin looked up and saw David moving towards Phantom. He beeped. "New objective decided: Follow shipmates from island."

Benjamin's arms had started gathering air again after he had pushed the smoke out of the way. Now, the vacuum stopped and Benjamin's arms closed. He turned from Exular and walked towards his captain and first mate.

(OOC: *This is shown when Smoker was hit by a blast of wind and sent flying.)

Wrath/Justin

"Yeah man, whatever," Justin muttered. He wasn't particularly worried about Wrath's threat, not when the current danger level was so high already. "Man, it looks like it is about time for me to find the captain," Justin said. "I hope that man wasn't beaten..."

John

"You've got to be kidding me," David murmured. He didn't even break stride as he walked and raised his hands, forming another mirror to deflect the cross-shaped air slash.

He didn't notice the sword coming at him from behind. Not until he heard a loud CLANG and turned around to see Phantom standing behind him, casually blocking the sword with his own weapon.

"Keep your eyes open at all times," Phantom told his subordinate as if this was nothing more than a training session and he, as an instructor, was berating his student. "And never leave your back unguarded."

"Right, right," David muttered. "'Sup boss? Are we pulling out?"

"Of course," Phantom replied. "Find Benjamin. He can reach the others more easily than you or I. Then go back to the ship and await my arrival. I shall remain here to clean up."

"Yes sir," David said, giving Phantom a mock salute. Since he was under orders, this time he jogged instead of walking. David passed up Phantom as he went and Phantom turned away from John to follow after David, apparently uninterested in the man dressed as a priest.

Surrounding area...

The raging battle was not going well for the pirates. Though they had originally outnumbered the Marines three to one, that number was quickly dropping due to the skill of the numerous bounty hunters and the Reaper Unit.

Harry Jackson, the captain of the Confederate Pirates, was currently locked in combat with one member of the Reaper Unit. His saber flashed as he blocked the creature's powerful slashes with its scythe arms. Despite all of his efforts, he found himself slowly being forced back. With a growl of frustration, Harry lifted one of his feet and brought it crashing back down onto the ground.

A pillar of earth erupted from underneath the Reaper's feet, launching it high into the air. Harry drew his pistol and fired three shots at the creature. The Reaper twisted around and cut through all three shots with its scythe arms and then it came back down and slammed its arms into Harry's saber, which he just barely managed to raise in time to save his life. The sheer force of the swing blew Harry backwards through the wall of a hotel that was behind him. He did not come back out.

Nearby Oushi Ankoku, the captain of the Black Bull Pirates, was having just as much trouble as, if not more than, Harry. Oushi was dueling a deceptively slim bounty hunter whose blurring punches were slowly overwhelming him. The bounty hunter suddenly managed to grab hold of Oushi's arms and he forced them apart, opening Oushi up for attack. This was followed by a kick to Oushi's chin and then to the chest. Neither of these blows was strong enough to drive Oushi back, but when each one hit, there were audible snaps. Oushi collapsed at the bounty hunter's feet. The bounty hunter, a young man of twenty-two, put his hands on his hips and smirked.

"Ya should've just given up when ya had the chance," the bounty hunter told him. "I do prefer dead to alive...even if it don't pay as well."

Only Sylvia Hickory, the captain of the Pain Pirates, had not yet been touched. She still stood there, watching Alex, who she could only just see through the chaos around her.

A Reaper suddenly appeared behind her and slashed at her. Moving faster than the eye could see, Sylvia ducked and the scythe went over her head. From where she was now crouched, Sylvia kicked up at the Reaper's chest. Her foot not only moved too fast for the Reaper to block, but it also went all the way through the Reaper's chest and poked out of the creature's back. With this one move, the Reapers were finally revealed for what they truly were: robots. Mechanical innards spilled out of the Reaper's chest and it fell just as Sylvia pulled her leg back out of it.

Sylvia cast her gaze in Alex's direction one last time. With that, she turned away and walked calmly from the field of battle.

Meanwhile, Sean Wilson and his fifty Ranger Pirates were nowhere to be found...

Seeing the pirates and reapers fight Rupert felt scared as he could barely beat someone in a normal fight against these robot things he would be slaughtered and he knew it hopefully they wouldn't recognise him as a pirate he hoped as Duncan leapt up into his arms barking at the reapers and bounty hunters which all surrounded Momo. "Momo I think we should run, this won't end well for us and especially me." Rupert realised he was displaying a large show of cowardice but he figured he would rather escape with his life than die part of a pirate crew. As Rupert tried running he bumped in a pirate and landed on the ground dropping Duncan.

Duncan ran off and away scared of the fighting and noise Rupert rolled over to see what looked like someone from the Phantom pirates, Rupert realised this was bad. He knew pirates like this wouldn't let anything pass and as he looked up at him he felt his life flash before his eyes.

Is this the end he thought? What a pathetic life, I've done nothing half decent or exciting with my life, and the way it seems I never will do what the hell Rupert. Rupert didn't want to go out like this and hated the thought of being sliced and diced so soon after joining what seemed to be an awesome pirate crew he looked over towards John Moonstripe and asked himself internally, why can't I be more like him? He's cool as f**k, skilled, scary and dangerous in fact I'm getting chills and I'm all the way over here.
Oh what the hell is wrong with me?

As the dangerous Phantom Pirate turned to see Rupert and their eyes glided towards each others finally making contact he felt his heart skip a beat his pulse stop and felt deathly ill.

Rupert realised it was surprising how much crap went through your mind when you were about to be killed at the hands of a bloodthirsty pirate and couldn't believe how much he had said to himself and thought about in this short time. He smiled up at the pirate screaming in his head but too scared to actually say, please don't hurt me, his voice box refused to make any sound and his mouth froze with fear. He had never felt this feeling before but now that it was here he hated it with a passion and couldn't wait for it to leave, although he hoped it would go later after surviving this horrible ordeal as opposed to losing the feeling to death.

Seeing the Phantom Pirates moving away, after Phantom saved David from John's surprise attack, the "Priest of the Apocalypse" decided to stop chasing the first mate of the Phantom Pirates and concentrate his attack on the others who happened to be around. As he had been attacking David so recklessly, his evil personality was difficult to stay hidden at all. The pirates who were around were looking at him with a shocked look on their face... That man... He was quite dangerous and scary. Who knew what he could do to them if he wanted...

As soon as he realised that, the turned his sword towards them. He took an evil look on his face and he used his Slide technique. In an instant, he disappeared from his previous position and he reappeared in front of a pirate, slashing him diagonically to the chest from the top left to the bottom right, causing a big wound. Then, another pirate attempted to strike him from behind. Without even moving a single inch, John tilted his fingers on one of his hands and the same slash cut through the pirate's back, making him fall on the ground as well. At the time he was tilting his fingers, three pirates moved towards him. Two of them were holding guns and the third one was attempting to stab him with his sword. In no time, by using the Slide technique, John dodged the bullets of the guns pretty easily and appeared behind one of the two pirates, piercing through his back. The sword came out of the man's chest, completely covered with his blood. As it came out, John started moving it upwards, cutting the man in two from the chest and upwards, ultimately killing him. When they watched that, the two other pirates were shocked. Sweat started coming out of their bodies, as they stared at John, killing the other pirate. Before the two could react, John tilted his fingers once again and the one who was carrying the sword was stabbed in the chest in a similar way and was cut in two from the chest and above.

"What the hell..." the other man said, as he looked at John slaughtering people like they were mere, pathetic ants. He turned his back on John and started running away but before he did so, John used his Slide technique once more to reach him and slash him swiftly many times, causing fatal damage. "Argh..." the pirate said. "Wh-What is he?" as he coughed blood and fell on the ground dead, because of the many wounds he received from John's sword.

"Interesting... Very, very interesting..." John said, while looking at David and Phantom running away. "Many weak pirates have reached Sabaody... I guess I should start "cleansing" this place from all those weak people...". What did John have in his mind?!

Rupert

The Phantom Pirate glared down at Rupert for a few more seconds. He was highly tempted to kill him, but he had just learned that his captain had ordered a retreat. And after seeing all of these monsters running around, he could understand why.

"Hmph, luckily for you, I don't have time to deal with you," the Phantom Pirate told Rupert. He turned and stalked off.

However, there wasn't much time for Rupert to breathe a sigh of relief. A Reaper was heading his way at that very moment. Pirates were falling and screaming as the Reaper sowed a path of destruction, hacking them to pieces.

John

"Hmmm...you're right, this is very interesting," said someone from near John. The slim bounty hunter who had taken out Oushi Ankoku was approaching John from behind. "A pirate is killing his own fellow pirates when there are Marines in the vicinity? How odd."

The bounty hunter came to a stop. His hands were stuffed into his pockets and he had a light, almost friendly smile on his face.

"There really is no honor among thieves..." the bounty hunter continued. "Which is why I hate pirates. They are by far worse than thieves. At least with thieves their main purpose isn't to kill everyone around them regardless of the circumstances. Pirates, however, not only rob you blind but also murder and pillage just for the heck of it. Ah well. What else can one expect from a bunch of psychos who actually think that there is freedom in this world?"

"Who said that I am a pirate? No... I would not call myself something like that... I am not like them. I am different. I am not a man without honor. In fact, if I let them go like that, then I would have no honor. You see, I have a quite peculiar dream..." were the first words that the pirate said to the powerful bounty hunter that had just moved towards him in order to criticize him about his ways, without even knowing the way that John was thinking.

"You see..." John started completing "I have something simple in my mind. I want to cleanse this world from all the weak people. You are, yourself, strong enough to survive at the standards of my world. So, there is no need for us to fight... You managed to beat that captain of that high Bounty... That's something I like!". Then, as he ended his sentence, he swang his sword on the air and immediately a pirate behind the bounty hunter was slashed, much to the shock of everyone.

"We both are strong people, superior to those insolent brats. So, why do you not assist me in my goal? I would really need some help... Mister..."

Grateful that the Phantom Pirate above him was called away in retreat Rupert sighed letting his body feel loose and relaxed as he was so terrified before his body was tensed and stiff. He stood up dusting himself off then saw Duncan run to him and curl up at his feet.

"Don't worry Duncan I'm fine." replied Rupert smiling at him when Duncan began barking and Rupert wasn't sure why. Until he turned around to see what was known a a Reaper. Terrifying in appearance and power. Rupert's jaw dropped as he saw the destruction which was left behind its path and what made him even more fearful was the sight of what he was currently doing. Rupert picked up the barking Duncan and rushed away from the creature stepping over the woman he had paralysed and feeling bad that he was going to be in the Reaper's wave of destruction. Rupert paused looking down at her and the fear and pain in her eyes he wanted to help he really did but knew he couldn't moving her cause only cause further damage to her body and being a doctor he didn't want to hurt her. Rupert shut his eyes and turned away when a bloody limb flew his way. It snapped him out of his guilt as an arm with a still clenched fist smacked him in the back of the head.

Duncan leapt from Rupert's arms as Rupert turned to look who hit him he saw no one but the reaper getting closer when he looked down at Duncan whilst rubbing his head he shrieked seeing Duncan gnawing on the arm.
"Duncan bad boy put that down!"
Duncan's face dropped as he slowly opened his mouth and dropped the arm. Rupert then began running away from the Reaper who was closing the gap behind him fearing this reaper ma be following him he didn't know why and called out, "Come on Duncan!" Rupert rushed towards his new captain as he didn't know a safer place. At least he knew his captain was strong and hoped that he would be able to protect him.

A pink blur was visible in Rupert's vicinity. The blur stopped between Rupert and the Reaper that was after him. It was no other than Momo, who was now standing in his fighting stance, his palms facing forward and his eyes set on the Reaper. "Go, get to your crew" Momo called towards Rupert without turning back. Momo wasn't a typical pirate in his heart, he couldn't watch innocent people getting rampaged by the powerful, it reminded him of Kusabana island and it's islanders. In this case, Rupert was obviously too weak to face the Reaper, and Momo had to step in for the sake of his spirit.

"I don't know if you can understand me!" Momo shouted at the Reaper, "But I won't let you hurt defenseless people, especially not his kind of people" Momo said, referring to Rupert being non-racist. He wasn't going to move out of the Reaper's way, nor was he going to chase him if he gave up.

John

The bounty hunter cocked one eyebrow. His smile had vanished as John started talking, but that was about the limit of his response emotionally.

"You just don't get it," the bounty hunter whispered. "I don't care whether or not you call yourself a pirate. The thing is..." The bounty hunter reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of bounty posters. He didn't look down at them as he shuffled through them. He seemed to know what he was looking for and a few seconds later he withdrew John's poster and held it up. "You've got a bounty," the bounty hunter continued. "And you kill people. That's reason enough for me to take you down. Alive or dead, it doesn't matter to me. The money I make off of this I give away to people who really need it. I only keep just enough to survive on." He lowered the bounty poster and took a step forward. "Honestly, after hearing about your dream, I want to beat you even more. People like you...people who kill just to satisfy some kind of sick desire of theirs...they make me want to puke. If someone is weak, they should be protected. Not destroyed. Then one day they might achieve something great."

Alexander

Alex finished his conversation on the snail phone and put it away. Everything would be picking up speed from here on out. All he had to do was stand back and watch. And look for his crew. He couldn't forget about them.

Alex caught sight of Rupert running in his general direction. That was good. At least he didn't have to look for that one. Then there was some guy dressed as a priest, a man with a knife, and then a gunman.

Alex spread his wings. He was about to take flight when a Reaper dropped in front of him. Alex stared at it for a moment, looking the picture of perfect calm. Then his wings shot up to block a strike by the Reaper's scythes. Reaching back, Alex grasped the hilt of his sword. He didn't have time to draw it, but flipped over the Reaper's head to dodge a swing that would have cut off his legs. However, by the time Alex had hit the ground, the Reaper had already spun around and gone on the offensive. One of its scythes cut into Alex's side and the Reaper followed this up with a kick in his back, knocking Alex to the ground.

Rupert

A man stepped out into Rupert's path. It was the Marine Captain Daisuke Howaido. He held no weapons in his hands, but instead was carrying an abnormally large shotgun, which was slung around his shoulders and across his back by a leather strap.

"I would ask you to surrender," Daisuke said. "But none of the other pirates have listened to me so far, so I don't see the point in trying."

He suddenly dashed forward, his body becoming a blur of speed which suddenly vanished right before he would have reached Rupert. A moment later he reappeared to Daisuke's right, his fist shooting forward towards Rupert's side.

"RIGHT STRAIGHT!"

Momo

The Reaper didn't let up for an instant. It burst through the pirates in front of it and rushed Momo, its flexible body twisting impossibly far as it spun with its blades level with Momo's throat.

Wrath, after his brief scuffle with Justin, took to finding those who also wanted to join Alex. The only one he could find from his spot on the ground was Rupert and his dog, both of whom were running toward the tree out of sheer panic. Of all of the other people he saw, Wrath figured that Rupert needed the most help.

The moment Wrath took a step toward Rupert, a marine captain appeared in front of Rupert who seemed to hesitate. Wrath began running full speed toward them. Asperity. Wrath swung his right arm forward, firing two of the spikes from his arm at Captain Daisuke. Each spike was three inches long and moved as fast as a bullet. Unfortunately, the spikes would not reach Daisuke in time. It would be up to Rupert to survive for a few more seconds until Wrath got to him.

Rupert saw the man and froze with fear, he saw the man move at such speed he practically disappeared. Duncan barked at the man and Rupert heard a person call out Asperity, he was confused why someone had shouted it out. More terrified at the punch which was rushing to his face Rupert felt his body paralysed with fear, he didn't know what to do and tried as hard as he could to will his body to move but nothing happened he saw the fist get closer and closer and still his body wasn't moving. Terrified and knowing he needed to move as the fist got closer Rupert shut his eyes knowing one thing and only one thing.
This was going to hurt.

The next thing Rupert knew he felt a strong gust of wind blow over his face and he even felt something pass by close to his contorted face, when he opened his eyes reluctantly he saw a mighty punch just missing his face and realised that the punch really would have hurt, if it had hit him.

Rupert then realised that his body had thankfully avoided the attack, he regained feeling in his body and learnt that he had collapsed down to the ground and was holding himself up from the ground. Rupert couldn't believe he had avoided the punch and then realised as he was down here the Marine attacking him could simply bring his fist crashing down into him. He gulped as he figured out it would probably be a good idea to roll out of the way as quickly as possible.

The Reaper was ridiculously fast, much faster than Momo, but since the Reaper needed to cross some distance to get to Momo, the fishman could prepare himself for the attack prior to it's launch. Seeing the Reaper swing his arm at his throat, Momo ducked and side stepped, allowing him to barely dodge the attack. The Reaper's claws grazed against Momo's right shoulder, making him drop some blood, but it wasn't enough to stop him.

Now that he managed to dodge, Momo had to switch to offense. The creature he was facing was way too fast for Momo to handle, but as long as that creature had a few drops of water in his body, Momo could take care of that. He extended his right arm forward with all of his fishman's strength, aiming for a palm strike on the Reaper's abdomen. "Open Tone Palm!" He declared. The palm strike on it's own was strong enough to crack stones, but the real power was what it carried behind it. Using his special Drum Karate, Momo could use his opponents as living water drums by making the water in their body react to his strike. If the palm strike would connect, the water inside the creature's body will tilt, which will make the creature experience a lose of balance, nausea, and weak internal pain.

(("Open Tone Palm: A palm strike to a target's abdomen. The strike is delivered with great strength, being capable of cracking stone, but the main power of the strike is it's ability to send a vibration through the water in the target's body. This vibration makes the water inside the target tilt, making it lose it's balance and experience nausea and internal pain. The strike produces a loud sound of a Water drum being hit."))

"Too bad we do not want the same thing..." John said with a disappointed look on his face while turning his back to the bounty hunter. "Do you know something? I was battling that pirate of the Phantom Pirates... Don't be fooled because he has such a high bounty. He is only basing his fighting style to his fruit. He has no other actual experience at fighting rather than using a fruit. If I could remove his fruit's powers, it would be easier to kill him than killing a worm. However, with you it's different. Unlike him, you don't seem to be basing your fighting style on a Devil Fruit completely. You seem to have strength. You are one of us...". Then, his voice tone turned to louder and basser while he opened his hands widely and looking at the sky. He continued "ONE OF THE PEOPLE THAT WILL LIVE IN THE STRONG WORLD! IMAGINE IT! A WORLD WITHOUT PESTS! A WORLD WITHOUT WEAKS! A WORLD OF PERFECTION... Isn't that a miracle? A strong world... I don't care about whether you want to beat me or not. I would never attack first somebody who fits my creteria. Understood?". That man... He was quite peculiar... He was completely unpredictable. However, one thing was for certain. He dreamed of things that could never happen...

Alexander

Alex hit the ground and rolled, coming up a few feet from the Reaper. It only took about a second for the Reaper to close that distance, its blades held out at its sides in preparation to slice Alex apart. Only this time there was something different. This time, Alex was ready.

"Spike Strike!"

All four of Alex's wings shot towards the Reaper's chest. Its blades flashed as they moved in to protect its main body. They succeeded in catching each of Alex's wings, but the two scythes were trapped between the spikes of the wings. Alex smirked and his wings twisted around the scythes as the Reaper struggled to escape.

"Foolish creature," Alex commented. "To think that I would allow myself to be taken down by something like you." He reached back and drew his sword, but he kept it there, up above his head. "FAREWELL!"

Alex brought his sword crashing down on the Reaper's head, but instead of cutting through it like he thought his blade would, there was a sound like metal crashing against metal and his sword was halted. Alex's eyes widened in shock. The Reaper's head had split in two, but it was not Alex's weapon that had done this. A third scythe blade had appeared, protruding from the Reaper's neck area. The two sides of the Reaper's apparently fake head fell away, taking the dark bandages, which had been wrapped around it, to the ground with it.

Alex tsked and twisted his head to the side as the Reaper thrust its newest blade at his throat. This fight had just gotten a whole lot more complicated.

Wrath and Rupert

Daisuke growled as his punch missed and his eyes flickered in the direction the word "Asperity" had come from. With his other hand he reached around behind him and he snatched his shotgun off of his back and held it up in the direction of the oncoming spikes. For a moment it could be see perfectly by Rupert and, to a lesser degree, Wrath. The shotgun was a double-barrel weapon and these aforementioned barrels were both solid black with a single white kanji written on each of them. Ironically enough, the kanji said, "Safety first."

Daisuke pulled the trigger of his shotgun and fired the first of its two bullets. This bullet struck one of the nearly invisible, oncoming spikes and the bullet exploded, taking the spike with it. The explosion caught the other spike in its issuing blast and knocked it off of its original path, sending it spinning away into the crowd of fighting pirates, Marines, and bounty hunters.

Daisuke proceeded to swing his shotgun down at Rupert from the side. It was on a collision course with his gut, so if he did roll to dodge, he would need to roll really fast and go several feet in the opposite direction within the next couple of seconds.

Momo

The Reaper had little time to dodge. Unlike Alex, Momo's attacks were at a much closer range and did not involve swinging a broadsword. Thus, his attack hit, but the results were not as dramatic as he was hoping for.

Admittedly, the Reaper was launched away from Momo and nearly slammed into a crowd of passing Marine soldiers, so in that respect his attack was successful. However, the Reaper did not experience any nausea, nor did it lose its balance or feel any pain. Lifeless machines felt none of these things. The Reaper simply stuck out its feet and slowed itself back down before reassessing its opponent. Its outer armor had not been damaged by the attack, but it had been slightly weakened. Also, after doing a quick scan of its own interior, the Reaper discovered that a few of its parts located around the oil canals inside its body had been lightly damaged. The Reaper decided that while Momo was not necessarily a big threat, it would still label him as an anomaly and treat him with caution.

This caution was interpreted by the Reaper as the choice to enter into its battle mode. Up to this point, it had only been using its main arm weapons and thus, less than half of its overall power. From now on, it would be doubling that power and coming at Momo with all of its speed.

Momo's interpretation of the Reaper's caution might have been a little bit different. Regardless of what he may have thought, what the Reaper actually did was to unleash the hidden scythes in each of its legs. These scythes cut through the Reaper's feet and slid out with their curves blades supporting the Reaper as a makeshift pair of feet. The blades themselves were curved upwards as opposed to normal scythe blades which curved back towards the one using them.

The Reaper charged, but it was no longer simply running on two legs. This time it dropped down and landed so that it was standing on the four points of its scythes. Then it used this scythes to run like some sort of spider towards Momo. Before the Reaper reached Momo it jumped into the air above him and tucked in its scythes in front of it so that they all pointed at Momo's chest as well as protected the Reaper's main body from a direct attack. Then the Reaper plunged towards Momo.

John

"Understood, psycho," the bounty hunter commented, managing to regain a little of his cool. He smiled casually and stuck his hands in his pockets. "I could just leave you alone and you'll go out and murder a bunch of helpless civilians and by doing so somehow prove your own superiority. Sounds like a great idea...oh, what the heck am I saying?"

The bounty hunter's body blurred and he zipped around to John's immediate left. One of his feet shot out at John's side.

[9 Posts before spikes regenerate]

Wrath continued running toward Rupert and Daisuke. The sudden explosion that occurred in front of Wrath indicated that his spike was completely ineffective. Beside its pinpoint accuracy, Daisuke's shotgun seemed ppretty normal. He pulled out his stiletto again while getting closer. Now about 10 meters away, Wrath lowered his body as he ran toward Daisuke. His target, both of Daisuke's shins in a combination slash attack with his stiletto and his claw.

"Psycho? No..." John said as he disappeared from his spot, using his Slide technique to move away from the Bounty Hunter. He reappeared a few meters forward and he said "I am a man of dreams... I can dream as much as I want... I can desire things as much as I want. There is nothing in this world that can stop me from doing that...". Then, the man raised his sword and swang it on the air. Instantly, the motion was repeated a few meters away from him, cutting the head of a pirate who was watching at the Bounty Hunter and John while they had their conversation. "I can do whatever, I want..." John continued. Afterwards, he looked with an evil look towards the hunter and finally ended his phrase, saying "Can I not?". It seems that a battle between the two of them could start soon... Very, very soon...

Momo was surprised to see that his opponent wasn't harmed as he expected. He felt something weird when his palm connected: The Reaper had no water in his body, making him non-biological. That made this battle much harder for Momo, who's attacks focused around using the water inside his opponent's body as a weapon. Momo's thoughts were confirmed once the Reaper sprouted scythes from his legs.

Even though his main offensive force was neutralized, Momo had one technique that didn't use his opponent's body fluids, but his own, and that technique was perfect for that particular situation. As the Reaper jumped, it gave Momo time to prepare himself for the incoming attack, and so he did. When the Reaper pointed all four tips towards Momo's chest, Momo raised both of his palms and jumped up. By jumping, Momo switched the area of impact from his chest to his large stomach. "Bass Tone Block!" He announced as he hit his stomach with his palms. The palm strikes produced a deep bass tone, but that was only a side effect. The true power of the technique was that it allowed Momo to increase the water pressure in his stomach area, making his stomach as hard as steel.

With his new reinforced stomach, Momo blocked the Reaper's attack, letting the scythes hit his stomach. The stab was painful, and for a second Momo feared his technique wasn't goo enough, but then the scythes stopped progressing inward, and were blocked by Momo's belly without dealing any serious damage. "Seems like I'm not the only monster around now am I?" Momo said to the robot he was fighting. Without the privilege of manipulating his opponent's body fluids, Momo had to use his normal punches, which were still powered by his fishman strength. He aimed a punch towards the Reaper's abdoman, cause he couldn't reach the Reaper's head because of it's higher position.

Alexander

Alex pushed himself back, away from the Reaper, unwrapping his wings from its weapons. Though he had the creature's arms held in place, so long as its head could continue attacking, he was not safe in that position. The Reaper apparently did not like the distance that was forming between them and it pressed forward, preparing to attack with its arms and head scythes.

"Dual Guillotine!"

Alex sliced two of his spiked wings through the air, unleashing twin air blades in the shape of an X. This attack slammed into the Reaper's chest and knocked it back several feet. The center of the X had impacted the middle of the Reaper's chest and the power of the two air blades left a small hole where they had struck as well as weakened the surrounding metal.

Alex raised his sword in front of him, grasping its hilt with both of his hands, preparing to destroy the Reaper. However, before he could make his move, his attention was grabbed by the sound of an explosion. He smirked, glancing in its direction. It sounded like his plan had succeeded. Now it really was time to pull out.

"Let's end this right now," Alex told the Reaper, returning his attentions back to the machine. "

Wrath

Daisuke pulled his shotgun back after his attack on Rupert. He didn't bother to check if he hit the man or not, but brought his weapon back to block Wrath's claws. He wasn't fast enough to jump back before the other man's stiletto cut into his shin, but he still hopped back a moment later, pulling himself free of its blade.

"Scatter Shot!"

Daisuke brought his shotgun up and fired again. Unlike the first shot, this one was more like a shotgun blast, but it was still a little different in that it sent out a burst of full-sized bullets towards Wrath.

Suddenly Daisuke heard an explosion. (OOC: It's the same explosion Alex heard just now.) He looked around, but could not see the source. Then the Den Den Mushi in his pocket began ringing.

Daisuke sprang back from Wrath, putting some distance between him and the other man. He winced as he did this and a bolt of pain rushed up from his shin. He quickly brushed it aside and reached down and swatted the Den Den Mushi to turn it on without raising it to his ear.

"Talk," he said quickly.

"Sir, it's the base!" a voice said through the Mushi. "A large group of pirates just came out of nowhere and attacked us! They are destroying everything! It's like they knew that our defenses would be lowered!"

Daisuke's eyes widened in shock. Pirates had gathered in this clearing to hear the words of this new captain...another group was attacking the Marine base itself...what exactly was going on?

John

The bounty hunter twirled around and came back down on both of his feet. He glanced at the dead pirate and then back at John.

"No you can't," he replied. "I've observed your technique both now and earlier while you were fighting. Actually, I was watching everybody, but I'm good at memorizing things, even when I'm not totally focused on one particular. Truth be told, I haven't quite figured you out yet, but I'm pretty sure that I have the concept down." He closed his eyes looking intensely calm. "Besides, no one in this world is invincible. I just got to figure out how you're doing what you are doing and then you're the same as anyone else."

He vanished. Barely a second later he appeared up in the air above John and pulled one of his hands from his pockets. He swung his hand through the air and launched a handful of pebbles around him. Then he spun and kicked down at John as he fell towards him.

"Tectonic Crush!"

(OOC: Tectonic Crush is a kicking technique, from a special series of kicks, where the user's leg vibrates at frequency that can cause significant internal damage should it hit.)

Momo

Again Momo hit the Reaper. It had thought that it had pierced him and thus he should have been screaming in pain, so his punch was quite unexpected. The Reaper's already damaged chest was weakened even more and it tumbled back. However, it quickly caught its balance and came back up on its four legs. It stared at Momo for a moment, but then its eyes fell both ways as its fifth and final scythe cut its head in twain and burst out. It was in full battle mode now and it no longer even vaguely resembled a human.

The Reaper did not jump into the air this time. Instead, it flipped up on two of its scythes and began rolling towards Momo on top of its blades. Had it still looked human, this would have given it the appearance of cart wheeling.

[8 Posts before spikes regenerate.]

"SH---!" After he managed to stab Daisuke's Shin, Wrath moved back to prepare to strike again. When Daisuke pointed his shotgun at Wrath, he stood sideways and brought his right arm between them to block. The round was fired and the spray of bullets came out. Wrath stood his ground and shifted his right arm back and forth just a few inches but fast enough to catch any bullets that would have otherwise hit him.

Wrath's right arm was practically hard as steel; being able to block swords and bullets. However, this was not a normal shotgun blast. The bullets managed to puncture Wrath's arm at their heads and one penetrated him where his missing spikes were. Blood flowed down from his arm.

Wanting to continue his advance, Wrath turned his body toward where Daisuke stood again. First he plucked the bullet out of his arm. He bent over, placing his right palm on the grass. With his left arm, Wrath touched his two eyelids. Even when Daisuke talked to his den-den mushi, Wrath stayed in that pose. Wrath was ready to enter "rage mode" to end the fight. Already, his bloodlust began to escape, making Wrath seem a little more sinister. However, he waited for Daisuke to make the first move.

"Hey you, marine. If you are done talking to your girlfriend, then please stay where you are and wait for me to rip your heart out."