One Piece Fan Fiction ❯ Cursed Island of the Devil Fruit Gods ❯ Dual Flying Aces ( Chapter 15 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Usopp scrambled up the rocky cliffs as the bat zoan swooped over him, laughing and taunting him, covering him in his bat-like silhouette as he flew in front of the sun and terrifying Usopp.
"Can't...hide...in a cave..." Usopp panted, knowing he'd be doomed if he took shelter inside one of the caves, trapping himself. "Unless..." he pulled a disc-shaped object out of his pocket. He held it up at the sun with his right arm and looked around; the bat zoan had vanished. "Where'd he go?" Usopp gulped, wondering if he was in for a big surprise.
"BOO!" the bat zoan swung down in front of him, having climbed slowly down from above Usopp and hanging himself upside-down from the roof of the cave mouth. The bat roared with laughter at his trick.
Usopp nearly fainted but instead responded by putting the disc-shaped object back into his pocket and clutching his aching chest with the other, since he felt like he was having a heart attack. He dashed into the back of the small cave, realizing there were less places to hide in there than he thought.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are." the bat taunted in a sing-song way. To him, this appeared to be a game. "I may be a bat zoan, but I, Koumori, don't have the handicap of being made for hunting in the darkness. I could find you with my eyes if I wanted...but just for fun, let me show you what I can do." he cackled before taking a deep breath. Seconds later an ear-piercing shriek echoed throughout the cave and Usopp howled in pain, covering his ears, his eyes watering.
"STOOOOOOOPPPPPP!" he begged, falling to his knees, trembling.
The cave took several seconds before it quieted down. "Found you." Koumori grinned. "No outsider is a match for my Batta-Batta no Mi. And my particular model is a Vampire Bat." he grabbed Usopp's neck and bared his fangs. "You look tasty...if a bit scrawny. Or perhaps I should fatten you up?" he taunted.
"Light Dial!" Usopp croaked frantically, finally pulling the disc-shaped object out of his pocket and flashing it into Koumori's eyes. Koumori's eyes were particularly sensitive and now it was his turn to howl in pain and writhe as Usopp scrambled out of the cave and slid down the side of the mountain to find a better environment for attacking. He then witnessed Franky's battle against the bee zoan, and wondered if he could help Franky take his opponent down while Koumori was temporarily incapacitated.

"Weapons Left!" Franky shouted, shooting dozens of rounds through the air at the bee zoan to no avail, the buzzing fiend's speed being too great.
"Too slow! Too slow!" the bee zoan buzzed. "You'll never hit me! But I'll hit you!" he laughed, swooping down, even though Franky appeared now to have a clear shot. But the bee zoan thrust out his rear end where his stinger was and shot out a mass of yellow liquid. It hit Franky's left arm where he shot bullets from and when Franky attempted to fire, it jammed and failed to respond.
"Damn it! He gummed up my guns..." Franky growled, putting his left hand back in position since all that arm would be good for now was hand-to-hand combat. He wasn't going to risk it happening to the other arm.
"Try it now! You can't! Suzumebachi wins again! Ha!" the bee zoan identified himself. "Suzu wins! Suzu wins!" he chanted, spinning around in mid-air while Franky debated what to do.
"Franky!" Usopp called, running over to him. Suzumebachi was apparently too distracted to notice. "Lure him near the cliffs! I've got an idea!"
Franky nodded, but looked around. "Who are you fighting?!" he growled, knowing that if Usopp wasn't pulling his weight he was going to have to punish him later.
"That bat-man in the cave there! I blinded him but he could recover any minute!" Usopp explained quickly. "Hurry!" Usopp said, climbing up the rocky slope again to find a good place to attack Suzumebachi.
"Right." Franky nodded. "One last shot...won't do much good, but..." Franky pulled his index finger off and aimed at Suzumebachi. "Ouch Finger!" he cried, and hit Suzumebachi with a single bullet in his rear, pulling the child-like zoan back to reality.
"Ouch! That hurt, blue butt-head!" Suzumebachi stuck his tongue out at Franky.
"Then come get me!" Franky spanked himself in a taunt as he turned around and began to run to the edge of the cliffs. He looked up briefly, watching Usopp struggle to get up higher. "Come on, long-nose-kun..." he grunted.
"You're trapped! Dummy!" Suzumebachi shouted, seeing Franky's back to the cliffs. "Now die!" he pointed his stinger at Franky again and began firing numerous miniature stingers at him. Every one of them hit Franky squarely in the chest and stuck. Franky didn't move.
"Now you'll burn to death on the inside from my poison!" Suzumebachi was clutching his sides laughing.
Franky wiped the stingers off of his chest and crossed his arms. "Maybe if I wasn't made of metal that would work." he scoffed, yawning.
Suzumebachi turned back to him, breathing heavily. "What...?" he squeaked, which Franky couldn't tell if it meant he was intimidated, or about to become psychotic.
"You heard me...Triangle Jacker!" Franky quickly thrust his metallic sideburns at Suzumebachi, who narrowly dodged them.
"Metal man...Suzu doesn't like..." Suzumebachi began to breathe harder and harder. "KOUMORI-SAN!" he cried.
"What the hell...?" Franky couldn't understand what his opponent was doing now.
"Flying Aces Double-Team!" Suzumebachi announced. Moments later, a very angry-looking Koumori emerged from the cave and flew over to him.
"My eyes...I'll eat his eyes for this!" he snarled squinting around for Usopp.
"Gotcha!" Usopp dropped off the cliff onto Suzumebachi's back. But the look on his face was apparent that he hadn't seen Koumori there when he jumped, and he shrieked in fright when Koumori looked over at him. "Giddyup!" Usopp kicked Suzumebachi, trying to make him go.
"Get off! Get off!!" Suzumebachi shook and shouted, trying to knock Usopp off, but Usopp was holding on for dear life with a death grip.
"I'll get him off!" Koumori growled. "Stay still!"
"Oh, no you don't!" Usopp pulled another disc out of his pocket and put it against Suzumebachi's wings. "Hurry..." he implored it.
"You're mine!" Koumori snarled, until a rock struck him in the side of the head and dazed him. Franky had thrown it and was now calling to Usopp.
"Jump, Usopp-kun! I'll catch you and we can fight them together!" he shouted.
"No, I've got it!" Usopp shook his head. "Come get me, Koumori!" Usopp flicked his nose and stuck his tongue out at the infuriated Koumori.
"You'll regret it!" Koumori opened his mouth wide as if to bite off Usopp's head. But Usopp flicked the disc and a horrible buzzing noise even louder than Suzumebachi's came out, and the result was that Suzumebachi's wings weren't able to fight against the vibrations and he and Usopp both began to fall out of the air. Koumori narrowly missed them, and watched as they both plummeted.
"Already used a Light Dial...he won't fall for that again...but he doesn't know about the Sound Dial..." Usopp zipped up the pocket with the Light Dial but kept the Sound Dial he had just used at the ready, and jumped off of Suzumebachi into Franky's arms.
"What did you do?" Franky asked him, watching Suzumebachi crash into the side of the mountain and fall to the ground, stunned.
"These are Dials...we picked them up in our trip to Sky Island..." Usopp said quickly, gazing up for Koumori's position. "I have another idea, but you have to get Suzumebachi near Koumori when I tell you. Think you can do that?" he asked.
"No problem." Franky cracked his metallic knuckles. He ran over to the recovering Suzumebachi and began defending himself as Suzumebachi unleashed a flurry of punches with all six arms.
Koumori swooped down on Usopp once again, and struck him in the jaw with a hard right, knocking him into the cliff wall. "You won't survive another screech, especially this close." Koumori snorted, grabbing Usopp's throat and taking another deep breath. But before he could utter the first high-pitched note of his screech, Usopp shoved the sound dial in his mouth. Koumori's eyes went wide with surprise as he attempted to pry it out but his long fangs were in the way. Usopp used this opportunity to call to Franky.
"Now, Franky!" he cried, knowing he only had seconds to pull off his plan.
Franky stopped defending against Suzumebachi's assault and took several hits but he managed to duck down and grab the bee zoan's stinger and pull him upside-down. Disoriented, Suzumebachi couldn't fight back and was thrown hard by Franky directly at Koumori. "Let me help you with that!" Usopp pried the Sound Dial out of Koumori's mouth. "Let's just hope this still heard you!" he said. Turning it back onto Koumori just as Suzumebachi made impact with him, Usopp fired the magnified screech at the two of them, which not only made it look like the two of them were having seizures, but also blew them back into side of the mountain, creating another makeshift cave that caved in moments later.
"W-we did it..." Usopp panted, sweating like a pig. He nearly fainted but Franky caught him and patted him on the back.
"You did good, long-nose. Let's hope our friends are doing okay as well." Franky looked around for where their friends might be.

Smoker raced through the jungle in the general direction of the Paramecia village, not knowing what he was getting himself into. But something told him that Tashigi was not safe, no matter what the Straw Hats told him. Armed with what little knowledge he had of the situation, he was not very hopeful about his prospects. But with any luck the Straw Hats would accomplish their mission and be too tired after it was over to resist arrest. "Tashigi! Answer me, Sergeant!" Smoker called. But Tashigi wouldn't be able to hear him no matter how loud he shouted. She was somewhere beneath his feet, where not even the Paramecians could find her. He just hoped Robin knew he wasn't her enemy, at least for now, and wouldn't ask the Paramecians to turn on him.
An idea hit him just then. If the Paramecia village was up on a mountain slope, if he could climb up higher than that, he'd have a good view of the entire island. And he happened to have the best pair of binoculars that the Navy could provide. He began his ascent of the nearest rocky ledge, becoming a weightless gas to help climbing become easier. "Tashigi...hold on. I'll never forgive myself for letting you out of my sight if you get hurt." he grunted.
At that moment, however, the entire mountain began to shake and Smoker looked up to see what looked like a fist made of rock emerging from above in the side of the cliff, which then proceeded to dig into the side of the cliff and pull out a very heavy chunk of rock the size of a small ship. Smoker's eyes widened. "You've got to be fu-" he cried, before the rocky fist dropped the rock down over him.
Kagemaru stood atop the mountain alongside one of his three compatriots. "Mission accomplished." he chuckled cruelly.
"It was almost too easy. We'll pick them off one by one at their weakest moments. You'd think leaders like that would be smarter." his burly-voiced ally scoffed.
"They are just outsiders. Their lives have no meaning other than to fulfill their purpose to us. It matters not how smart or strong they are. We are invincible as long as we share our power." Kagemaru declared. "I'll keep watch over the others. You stay here and make sure the Paramecians stay in place and don't change their plans. The game is only beginning and we're already ahead by a great margin." he laughed wickedly.