Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 30 ESCAPE

I was blinded and my ears were ringing as the lightning bolt and thunder hit the execution platform. When I could see again the platform had teetered over. I glanced at the quest. 

I couldn’t see Luffy anywhere, but he was immune to electricity. I doubted he was hurt. Running to where the platform had fallen over I found Luffy trying to pull his head out of the pillory. 

Without waiting I ran over and kicked the top part off, setting him free. “Weston, thanks,” Luffy said. “Can you believe it? The spot where the pirate king died is gone now?”

“You do know you almost died, right?” I asked. 

“Ha, yeah,” he said, rubbing the back of his head. “Looks like I survived though.”

“Luffy!” Buggy yelled. His clothes charred from the lightning strike he pushed himself off the ground. “I’m going to kill you!”

“Luffy, you still owe me for what you did to me,” a beautiful black haired woman said. I couldn’t quite remember her. There were other people from Buggy’s crew walking up. 

“Oy, don’t mess with our captain!” Zoro said, running up with his nice new swords. 

“You’ll have to get through us,” Sanji said, coming up from the other way. 

“We outnumber you all,” Buggy laughed. Their crew was a couple dozen. 

“Unluckily for you, we have you surrounded,” I said. It began to rain. I noticed Nami and Usopp a little ways away. Bags in their hands. “Get back to the ship! This won’t take long!” The duo nodded and ran off. 

The fight started as the rain began to downpour. Luffy went for Buggy. Punching and kicking him. Zoro and Sanji went for his crew. I went for the dark haired woman. 

I tried punching her, but as my fist touched her face it slid right off causing me to become disoriented and lose my footing. She used her big black spiked metal club to hit me hard. I absorbed the blow doing a somersault in the air. Jumping back I punched again only for my skin to slide off hers all over again. 

“Do you like that?” She asked. “That is thanks my Sube-Sube fruit. I’m frictionless.”

“Oh shit. You’re Alvida,” I said. She was the first villain Luffy fought. A large cow of a woman she slimmed down when she ate the Devil fruit. 

“Oh, you’ve heard of me,” she said with a smile as she hefted the club. 

“I have,” I said as rain soaked my clothes. “Weren’t you really fat and ugly?” I asked with a smile. Her face contorted in rage. Her smooth smooth feet slid across the cobblestones toward me. I couldn’t hit her. So I decided to throw her. 

Pouring chakra into the air around me I accumulated all the rainfall into a single point. Then pushed it into her. Her eyes bulging I lifted the ball. She almost slipped out, but I condensed the water and threw her as far away as I could. She tried to scream in the water as she soared through the air like a vaulted rock from a catapult. 

I looked around to see Luffy knock Buggy out and the other pirates beat up or running away. “Nicely done, Straw Hat,” a voice yelled over the loud rainfall. We turned to see the marine commander walking up to us. Behind him was a line of marines. 

The others were on guard as he walked up. There was no wanted poster for Luffy yet so I wasn’t too worried that they’d grab us. But I was still cautious as the marines grabbed the pirates knocked down. 

“Yeah, these uh pirates. Think there’s a bounty on some,” I said. 

“There is,” Smoker said. “As well as your Monkey D. Luffy.” He pulled out the smiling bounty poster of Luffy’s. 

“Fuck,” I said. Luffy extended his arm out in an instant grabbing the drenched bounty poster. 

“30,000,000 berries! You see that guys?” Luffy laughed. 

“Makes you the most wanted man in East Blue,” I said. “You mind just letting us pass, Smoker?”

“Oh, you know me?” The man asked. He wore an open coat with no shirt underneath. In army boots and thick pants the rain didn’t hardly touch his skin. He had slicked back gray hair and was smoking 2 cigars at the same time. 

“If you know me, you know I don’t let any pirates out of here. You already infest the Grand Line. It’s my job to make sure that none of you go to make it worse.” A blue stone jitte over his shoulder I remembered that it was made out of Seastone. A stone that could affect Devil Fruit users because it was an element that was basically the sea itself. 

“Well thanks for the poster,” Luffy said. Folding it up he put it under his straw hat. “But I’m going to be the pirate king. Can’t do that if I let you capture us.”

“Ha! Pirate king,” Smoker said. “Good luck with that kid.” He ran at Luffy. His Seastone Jitte in hand Luffy met him head on as we attacked the other marines. 

The flintlock guns were useless in the rain so they drew their swords. All were pretty weak and knocked out after a single blow. Sanji, Zoro, and I finished up to see Luffy getting the shit kicked out of him. The seastone Jitte made his rubber unable to work well. And Smoker had eaten the Moku-Moku fruit which turned his body into smoke. 

The rain couldn’t touch him. And wherever Luffy hit dissipated into smoke. So it wasn’t his best matchup. I had a quest though. I wasn’t about to let us get captured by more marines. 

Pouring chakra in my body I jumped at them. Luffy ducked under a hit from the Jitte and as Smoker kept going with the swing I grabbed the weapon. Ripping it out of his hand I picked up Luffy by his red vest and jumped back. 

“Let’s go!” I yelled. The trio didn’t offer an argument and ran after us. 

“Hey! Give that back!” Smoker yelled as he gave chase. 

“Leave us alone! We just want to get to the grand line!” Luffy yelled. 

“Like hell!” Smoker said. “Give me back my Jitte!” 

“No!” I yelled, hefting it over my shoulder. 

“Guys this guys a freaking ghost!” Luffy yelled. We all turned to see Smoker floating in the air. Moving much faster as he used his devil fruit to float. 

“He’s not a ghost. He had the smoke devil fruit. He can turn into smoke,” I said. We were getting close to the water. It was much easier going since the streets were empty and the rain poured. 

“Oh, then how do we beat him?!” Luffy asked. 

“Sea water or this thing,” I said. Hefting the Jitte I considered attacking him. But in all honesty I had never really held a sword or long weapon. From the short exchange when I stole the Jitte I knew he was stronger than me. 

“Zoro, your girlfriends here!” I yelled. In front of us stood a woman with a katana. Wearing glasses and dark hair she was the spitting image of Zoro’s childhood friend. 

“She’s not my girlfriend!” Zoro said but jumped in front. Meeting her blade. 

“Akk!” Luffy said as Smoker tackled him. I swung at Smoker but he moved his smoke to dodge the Jitte. 

“Fuck,” I said. “Luffy Sanji, stall him! I’ll get something to deal with him.” I poured chakra in my body and ran forward at full speed. When I was a good 1,000 feet from the shore my extended chakra grabbed a human sized ball of sea water. Running back I floated it behind me, but the fight was already over. 

Smoker sat on Luffy, but overtop Smoker was a robed man with X tattoos on his face. “Dragon,” I mumbled in awe. It was Luffy’s dad. In the excitement I forgot he was in town. 

They said some words as I dropped the unneeded seawater. A huge gale of wind blew my way. So strong it picked Luffy up off the ground and threw Zoro and Sanji at me. Colliding with them we were thrown forward by the wind. 

Catching ourselves we yelled out in excitement as we got to the shore. The ship already cast off, Luffy grabbed us and threw us onto the ship. 

“To the Grand Line!” He yelled happily as he landed and dropped us on the deck. 

“Stop doing that,” I mumbled. Out of breath I laid on the deck with Jitte in hand.