388. Smoke On The Water
Previously:
At that moment Usopp, Johnny and Yosaku joined us and Luffy led us over to where Zeff and Sanji were standing. Grinning up at the Head Chef, Luffy asked "Hey, if I fight off all of the pirates for you I can go right?"
Zeff looked amused as he said "Sure kid, beat up the pirates and I'll call us even."
'Called it!' I thought to myself with a smirk as we watched Krieg rallying his troops. The prelude was finished. Now the main event was about to begin...
Now: Baratie
Carne and Patty quickly ran into the restaurant and then to the front where the fish head was. I raised an eyebrow as my Observation Haki tracked them but brought my attention back outside as Sanji said "At this rate, the ship will become a battlefield." Turning to one of the cooks, he continued "Go to the operating room and open up the fins."
"What? Open the fins? That's gonna give a foot hold to the enemy!" The chef said.
"No, Sanji's right. If you fight inside then the fight will inevitably wreck the interior of the ship. And while it's one thing for a wall to get a hole knocked out, we can't take the chance of your kitchen getting damaged. I had a look inside and those are gas stoves you use, rupture the lines and we're going to have problems." I said with a frown.
The chef flinched at that but still looked at Zeff for confirmation. But at the Head Chef's nod he quickly sprinted back inside. A few moments later, a grinding sound came from below decks and the fins rose, pushing the closest Krieg pirates in the water away with the waves they generated as they came up before they stopped with a loud slam sound, a hole in the fin the perfect size to go around the small slip of a dock that was already extended past the ship's railing.
Luffy and Usopp had stars in their eyes as they said together "Oooh, that's amazing!"
"Yeah, pretty impressive, bet it makes steering a hassle when they're down though." I said with a nod.
"Oh, you have no idea." One of the chefs muttered earning nods from the others around him.
As me and the Chef had been talking about steering troubles, Luffy had Johnny and Yosaku bring Zoro into the restaurant. Zoro TRIED to say that he could still fight but for once Luffy was acting like a RESPONSIBLE Captain and wasn't having it. Zoro walked into the ship with a rather severe glower and grumbling about how just because he had been stabbed over the heart didn't mean he couldn't fight anymore. Johnny and Yosaku both promised that they would do their best to keep him inside before following.
I was drawn away from thinking about difficult maneuvering conditions by the sound of latches coming undone from the front of the ship. Looking in that direction, I saw the fish head moving forward revealing that it was a rather large paddle boat complete with a fin that moved forward once it was clear of the Baratie. Amusingly enough, there was an awning over Carne and Patty's head as they pedaled the boat. Less amusing and more practical were the three cannons now sticking out of the fish's mouth.
Patty loudly laughed as the pair turned the boat towards the Krieg pirates and said "Behold Krieg Pirates! The Mackerel 1!"
The pair of sea cooks began shooting at the pirates that were still on the Galleon debris or in the water near said pieces of broken ship. It SEEMED like an effective strategy, and even made the pirates by the fin pause from beginning to climb up to boot, but then the pair made the most unwise decision to not only shoot at Krieg but get within arm's reach as well.
When the smoke cleared, Krieg had his left hand raised seeming to be without a scratch and he used that hand to pick up the Mackerel by the barrel of the middle cannon. Glaring at the small vessel trapped by his single hand, he shouted "I am Don Krieg! The man who will conquer the world's sea! I don't have time to play these games!" He then let out a roar of exertion as he lifted the metal boat that was easily four times taller than him up one handed before throwing it over his shoulder. Though seemingly against his wishes to take the ship intact, that sent the Mackerel straight towards the Baratie.
One of the chef's shouted "Oh no, the ship will be destroyed!"
"I've got it!" I said, quickly moving to in front of the Mackerel's flight path. A hard blast of wind stopped the Mackerel's forward motion and a tightly controlled funnel of high speed wind allowed the Mackerel to land on the water soft enough that the paddles didn't snap off. Floating down to where Patty and Carne were gripping the controls with wide eyes, I asked "You two alright?"
"Y-yeah/T-thanks." The two got out.
"Maybe you should avoid Krieg for the rest of this fight." I suggested.
"Uh yeah, we'll do that." Carne said with a shaky grin.
Patty's grin had a lot more teeth as he said "That still leaves several more of his men to deal with." With a laugh, Patty paddled backwards turning the Mackerel around and the pair quickly paddled away to continue their attack on the mooks.
Shaking my head, I decided that those two had the right idea and dematerialized, reforming in front of where some big chested dude decked out in pearl bossed shields and a shield helmet was standing on a largish piece of wreckage. He was making for the water with several more Krieg Pirates behind him but they all stilled when I reformed in front of them with my hands in the pockets of my jacket. Grinning at them, I said "You know, when you run into someone with specialized equipment in a group like this, it means either two things: either a, the guy with the special equipment is something special or b, the guy's overcompensating. I wonder which one it is with you."
"I assure you it's the former." The pearl shield guy said in an accent that made it sound like he was trying to be all 'sophisticated' and such but instead came off sounding ridiculous. Smirking, he held up his right hand and said "My name is Pearl, the Iron Wall of the Krieg Pirates! Whenever someone says the word 'Defense' they are talking about me! I have never been defeated in any of my last sixty one battles, indeed I have not even been wounded once!"
"Is that so?" I asked before I smirked and said "Then I suppose you won't mind if I test that claim."
Pearl spread his arms in invitation and said with a smug smirk "Not at all, in fact I'll even give you one free shot to my torso with your best move."
Tempting as it was to decapitate him with a wind blade given how he didn't have any kind of protection around his neck, I decided to go with a bit of showmanship for this. Cupping my right hand, the air over it started to swirl in on itself as I said "I only got this working last night but if you're willing to offer yourself as a testing dummy then I'd be crazy to let that opportunity pass me by."
Pearl's right eyebrow twitched at being called a dummy but his smug smirk remained in place as he said "Well maybe instead of talking about this mysterious technique you should begin it."
"Oh, I already have, Air Logia and all that." I said and the spinning wind kicked into overdrive causing my coat to begin flapping in the omnidirectional gale it was generating. I gained a wicked grin and projected my Armament Haki into the invisible sphere of destruction and all of the Krieg Pirates jerked back in surprise as they could finally see the currents of wind being constantly spun around a central point. The next instant, I shot forward through the few feet seperating Pearl and I with a cry of "RASENGAN!"
The giant pearl on the chest shield was instantly powderized when the Haki infused sphere of wind slammed into it. The metal of his shield let out unholy screech as it was shaved away. Soon as I made contact with flesh, I destabilized the sphere and Pearl was thrown back from the blast of wind, knocking out all but three of the pirates behind him with his large torso and lanky limbs. He had an inch deep depression carved into his torso from the attack. If I hadn't ended the technique when I had, I probably would have gone right up to my elbow before stopping.
Groaning as he sat up, Pearl shakily put a hand to the wound on his chest and said "You...wounded me."
"Yeah, well, consider yourself Lucky that I like having clean clothes. I could have kept the attack going longer but I didn't want to ruin my jacket. Blood takes FOREVER to get out, especially if it has time to settle." I said, brushing my left hand down the right sleeve of said jacket.
Pearl's earlier smug look was now replaced with fear as he said "This guy is dangerous." Getting up onto his feet, he began clapping his hand shields together as he said "I'm in danger, Danger, DANGER!"
"No Pearl, calm down please!"
"It's just a flesh wound Pearl!"
"Don't do it Pearl!"
The Krieg Pirates behind Pearl were beginning to look scared themselves. I found out why when an instant later Pearl somehow lit himself on fire, the flames an intense bluish white that immediately set the piece of ship debris we were standing on top of on fire.
As the Krieg pirates behind him desperately swatted at their clothes which were also catching fire, Pearl laughed and said "With these shields of fire I am invulnerable! Even the most apex of predators fears fire!"
Pearl laughed even more before I cut him off with "You know, this is just giving me more to work with in this fight right?"
"Eh?" Pearl asked, his laughter cut off in confusion.
Holding up my right fist, I said "In order for regular fire to burn, it needs three things: an Ignition Source, Fuel, and Oxygen." As I spoke, a finger went up for each requirement. Grinning, I said "You ever so helpfully provided the ignition, there's a destroyed Galleon around us that will provide plenty of fuel, and with us being on the sea there's plenty of Oxygen around us." I then chuckled and said "And being an Air Logia means I can control how large the fire gets, and help it get across the ocean seperating the fire from all of that fuel that's just waiting for a spark."
"No, no way!"
"He's lying right?!"
"Oh, this is BAD!"
I cackled at their words of fear and disbelief before I burst apart into wind. Wind which rapidly grew into a twenty foot twister that caused the flames to flare up into the sky. At the top of the twister the flames were scattered to all of the broken ship pieces on the right side of the battlefield. (Patty and Carne were still wreaking havoc on the left) Small twisters forming on those pieces soon had the fires roaring into infernos there and the air filled with the screams of Krieg Pirates. The majority of them made breaks for the ocean but even that didn't save them as I turned all of the twisters into a single massive spinning disc of burning wind that roared its might even as it turned the water underneath to steam as the fire rapidly raised the water temperature to 216° Fahrenheit.
When I finally snuffed out the raging inferno three minutes after making it, Pearl was a charbroiled skeleton, pearls all black and cracked and shields all completely black from the scorching though otherwise serviceable. (I made a note to secure the shields for Zoro and the bounty hunters to practice cutting metal on.) Pearl wasn't the only skeleton on the debris either, I had caught a good twenty seven pirates out of the water, and there were at least two dozen bodies floating in the ocean, boiled alive. The remaining few pirates that had escaped my AOE attack all had extremely painful burns covering the entirety of their bodies as they struggled to climb up on the pieces of Galleon that had remained flame free.
I left them for Carne and Patty to deal with, the pair's rate of fire having dropped to almost nothing, both due to shock at the firestorm but also because they too had been busy taking out Krieg Pirates. The pair quickly targeted the survivors well out of range of Krieg's reach, not that he seemed to be targeting their boat at the moment.
I realized why a moment later when Krieg shouted "ENOUGH OF THIS!" The shield that had been attached to his left hand (With barrels around the rim and an ammo belt showing that it was some kind of repeating weapon) opened the mouth of his jolly roger painted on it and he continued "IT'S TIME I KILLED ALL OF YOU BASTARDS ONCE AND FOR ALL!"
"THE MH5!" One of the surviving Krieg Pirates shouted and all of them, even Gin who had been fighting Sanji at that point pulled out gas masks.
Well, it didn't take a genius to know that whatever gas weapon Krieg was about to unleash was going to be nasty to deal with. Luffy was quick to snatch masks from two of the Krieg Pirates, one of which he gave to Sanji, while the regular chefs dived for the sea, Carne and Patty hauling Zeff into the restaurant and closing the doors, an action Usopp followed as he quickly entered from the second floor. All of that wound up being useless though.
Krieg fired the weapon, it traveled towards the Baratie, then hit a wall of wind, detonating. The gas didn't spread for more than ten feet though and Krieg shouted "WHAT?!"
Rematerializing beside the ten foot cube of gas, I tsked and wagged my finger as I said "Tsk, tsk, Krieg, I'm rather disappointed in you. You KNOW that the enemy has a wind elemental on their side and you STILL tried to use a gas weapon." The cube of gas shrunk down to a sphere the size of a basketball that I held in my left hand and I said "I'm EXTREMELY tempted to rip off that mask of yours and shove all of this down your throat right now, see how YOU like being poisoned." Krieg stiffening in fear had me smirking before I continued "But my Captain was clear, you're his."
Glancing over my shoulder, I asked "Captain, you guys good while I dispose of this stuff away from the battlefield?"
Luffy nodded as he said "We're good here Matt."
With permission to leave granted, I dematerialized, wrapping my 'self' around the sphere of gas then shot upwards. 21,000 feet up, I reached a jet stream and shoved the gas into it. The cloud instantly shot away into the distance, rapidly spreading out even as it quickly fade from sight. This high up outside of the Grand Line there shouldn't be anything that the gas could effect before the wind completely diluted it to the point of being useless.
With the gas taken care of, I reformed my body and entered a free fall. At 74.96 m/s, it took me 286.895 seconds or 4 minutes and 48 seconds to reach sea level. It was apparently just enough time for Luffy to finish fighting Krieg because I got a bird's eye view of him popping his limbs out of the net he was trapped in and using his legs to spin Krieg like a propeller and slam him into the fin of the Baratie. As Luffy fell towards the water, I quickly grabbed him under the shoulders and stopped his descent as I said "You and I have two very definitions of 'good' Captain."
"SHISHISHISHI, Thanks Matt, I would have been in trouble if you didn't catch me!" Luffy said with that D shaped grin of his.
"Yes, you would have." I said, putting a small but fast tornado under Luffy so that way I could get the net off of him. Once he was free of it, I tossed him towards the Baratie then followed, the pair of us easily landing on the ship fin as I said "Well, this has been fun."
Luffy laughed but his laughter cut off as Krieg stood up with a roar and shouted with blank eyes "I am the strongest out there, no one can defeat me!"
"Oh shut up already." I grumbled, dematerializing one last time and reforming right next to him, slamming my blackened fist into his gut. Krieg dropped like a sack of potatoes, well and truly knocked out this time and I said "Someone get some chain to wrap this bastard in then call the Marines to pick him and the survivors up."
"Yes sir!" Two of the chefs said, complete with salutes before they ran into the ship.
I took a glance at said survivors of the Krieg Pirates, a paltry six regulars and Gin with an absolute BEAUTY of a shiner on his right eye, all seven of them just as knocked out as their captain and I shook my head as I said "Krieg REALLY should have just taken the food and left."
Luffy's stomach let out a loud roar and he laughed as he said "Speaking of food, I could really do with some meat right now!"
"Then come inside and let us make a plate for you Chore Boy." One of the chefs said with a grin earning a shout of happiness from Luffy as he ran inside.
I smirked at his eagerness but didn't follow him inside. Instead, I took a series of leaps up and over the Baratie then opened my glider to head back to the Merry. It was time we learned why Nami had tried to run away.
Author's Notes: Sorry for the delay on this branch of the group guys. The humidity in Sumter is a real energy drainer and I've been sleeping for several hours after work. But now this group of stories is done so I can move onto other settings.
