Chapter 27: The Caged Bird
[ 3/11/1482 ]
[ Word Count 2180 ]
" Hello" - Speech
' Hello' - Thoughts
* Huff* - Sounds
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( Bullet's Pov )
After Achilles and I got the information we needed, we headed out for the factory which took us about five minutes to reach. It was towards the south of the mayor's house.
I Guess the mayor wanted to keep the items close to him, which was smart as he'd be able to have complete control over them, but it also made them an easy target for stronger people like Achilles and me.
" Wait." Achilles said to me pointing toward three guards around the perimeter of the broken-down factory. Although the factory looked quite old and torn, we could see the lights working fine inside and outside as well, signaling to us that this was indeed the place we were looking for.
" What should we do?" I asked Achilles while both of us were hiding behind a tree. It provided decent cover, and the guards weren't looking at this one place so it made an ideal spot to plan for our endeavor.
I was also counting the guards making sure I knew how many there were, and where they were guarding. They were about 5 guards in total around the factory.
" You distract them and I'll go inside the factory and rescue the kid. This way we can avoid unnecessary bloodshed because no other people should come and attack us, and I'm faster than you so it'll be quicker." Achilles said after I finished counting all the guards.
I didn't care too much about them except for one of them. This one seemed to be the one in charge. The man in command looked strong but that was fine by me since due to my boredom I had been sparing against Achilles for a while now, this gave me quite a nice increase in my strength.
" Wait for my signal," I said forming a sniper rifle in my hands. Thank god, I came prepared. I had brought a couple of weapons, 2 spears, and a couple of swords. I also made sure to bring a large bar of just iron which wasn't hard to find since this whole town is full of them.
All of the weapons and iron I was holding turned into hundreds of small dark purplish crystals which slowly formed into a large sniper rifle. We were quite far from the guards so they didn't hear all the clanking sounds I was making.
" When I fire, get inside quickly, and get out fast. The one in charge is gonna be trouble." I said to Achilles looking through the telescope for a target.
* Pew *
The bullet tore through the air as it hit the target in the head killing him. When I fired, Achilles used shave at his max speed to get inside the factory whilst everyone was distracted.
" Who's there?!"
" We are under attack!"
" Everyone defend yourself." The man in charge yelled out as none of his men understood who and where they were getting attacked from.
* Pew Pew Pew *
I continued sniping them taking all the men quite easily leaving only the main guy in charge alive. I fired what I thought would be the last bullet at the guy but to my surprise, the guy caught the bullet with his hand.
" Found you." The man said throwing the bullet back where I was. It almost hit me in the head but fortunately for me, I dodged it on time. But the mask on my face fell to the ground when I dodged the bullet. So the man quite easily identify me since the area around the factory had the lights on.
" Douglas Bullet, The Iron Giant. So the one who went inside the factory must be your captain, Achilles."
" I'm pleased to meet you. My name is Bear King. The man put in charge of protecting this factory." The man whose name I now know is Bear said to me. The man was huge with black hair and whiskers with a spade tattoo on his forehead.
[ Bear King's Image ]
The sniper I was holding changed once again into cubes as I had them forming a layer of armor around my arms and legs making them bigger and stronger. I did this since guns and bullets seem to be pointless against him.
" If I turn in your bounty along with your captain then I will be…" Before he could finish saying his sentence I launched at him like a rocket leaving behind a massive trail of dust behind me.
* Boom *
As my fist made contact with his body, you could hear a loud bang from the contact with cracks forming around my armored fist. But I quickly fixed them as they were minor damages. I kept punching him in his stomach, legs, and even his face. The only time where he actually took some damage was when I punched him hard with all my strength in his mouth. Drawing some blood from him.
But I didn't do any damage as I felt like I was punching a hardened wall. Noticing this I quickly moved away as he tried to punch me to the ground.
' Good call' I thought to myself as I looked at the damage a single punch of my opponents did to the ground. There was a large spider-like crack where he punched the ground.
As I rushed at him noticing his right hand was stuck on the ground. I want in for another attack.
( Achilles' Pov )
' Damn the dude must be strong.' I thought to myself as I could hear the fight between Bullet and whoever he was fighting against. But I didn't worry too much since I believed Bullet would win no matter what. After all, he's my first mate.
I quickly went downstairs to the basement where all the auction items are. And tried to find the kid fast. Which wasn't hard to do as he was inside a cell, and he was also the only person in the basement.
" Hey, kid wake up," I said as I walked up to the cell. And loe and behold, inside was an eight-year-old kid with a rather sleepy face and a tuft of curly blonde hair resembling a pineapple.
It was the future first division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, Marco The Phoenix. Well not anymore as I decided this kid is gonna be my future left my hand man.
" Hmm, your not part of the normal crew," Marco said pretty calmly even though he knew he's gonna be sold as a slave pretty soon. Something I noticed is his age as well. I thought he would be younger.
But I knew that I'm not in the world of One Piece as I know it from manga when I first set sail as a bounty hunter. So I wasn't too surprised about it.
" Yeah, I'm not. Consider me your savior kid." I said to him trying to find the key to his cuffs noticing they were sea stones. I found the key pretty easily as it was on laying on a table.
" So you're saving me for what? You want me to work for you?" The kid asked me.
" Hahaha… yeah pretty much. I'm a pirate by the way." I said to him going inside his cell and unlocking the cuffs on his hand and leg.
" Welcome to the crew..?"
" The name is Marco."
Marco said as I pretended not to know his name.
[ Marco's Image ]
" Welcome to the crew, Marco. Now let's get out of here." I said to him walking out of the cell.
" Fine, I'll join your crew. Not like I have any other option." Marco said in a begrudging tone following me out of the prison cell.
He was smarter and less stubborn than I thought he'd be. He was most likely able to infer that I'm strong simply from the ease with which I was able to free him, and in his weakened state due to the sea-stone, he would have no chance against me.
About a couple of minutes later, we walked out of the factory where I could see Bullet was about to finish his fight as well.
I decided not to join in since Bullet was to about finish it anyway. And the man doesn't like it when people interfere with his fight similar to me. Marco stayed closed in case anything went wrong.
( 3rd Person Pov )
" Your attacks are pointless against me. I ate the Hard-Hard fruit making my body impossible to hurt." The Bear King who was fighting against Bullet said as his fists set ablaze turning bright red.
Bullet seeing this removed the armors from his arms and legs. And reshaped them to his fist. This time, the armor was a lot thinner but it looked more compact and stronger.
" This attack will finish you." The Bear King said lunching towards where Bullet was. With Bullet meeting the attack head-on.
* Heat Boiling Special *
* Ultimate Fist *
* BANG *
As the two fists clashed, it created a loud explosion-like sound. The ground below both fighters shattered due to the strength being thrown around.
One side was bright red as the Bear King increased his fist's temperature even more turning his body bright red whilst Bullet contended with his pure brute strength.
Bullet seeing both of them were equal in strength opened a small hole in his armor around his right arm sucking in his opponent's arm and trapping him. Bullet quickly removed his armor from his hand whilst the Bear King's arm was still trapped.
Bullet removed some of the metal from the armor forming a long sharp dagger and stabbed his enemy through the mouth where his devil fruit ability wasn't that strong. Bullet noticed this when he punched in his mouth area early in the fight.
" You bast…" He never got a chance to finish his sentence as Bullet moved the dagger up through his mouth and skull killing him.
( Achilles' Pov )
" Looks like I will be out for a while," Bullet said to me after he killed his opponent. The man looked worn out as he was bleeding from his mouth and had bruises everywhere on his body.
" Take a good rest," I said catching his body that was about to fall to the ground.
" Oi Marco let's go," I yelled out noticing he was looking at the guy Bullet just killed.
" Right I'm coming," Marco said back walking towards me.
Since I already got what we wanted, I moon-walked towards the sky to head back to the Voyager. Marco already told me about his abilities when we were walking out of the factory just in case we had to fight anyone.
Marco slowly transformed into a small majestic-looking phoenix shrouded in a combination of bright blue and yellow flames. With long lengthy yellow tail feathers made of closed bound together circles.
[ Marco's Phoenix Form ]
' Pretty' I thought to myself as Marco in his phoenix form caught up to me and was flying next to me. From him to transform already just after he got out of sea stone cuffs, that was incredibly impressive, especially for his age.
" Can you heal him?" I asked Marco pointing towards Bullet who I was carrying on my back.
" Not fully. My flames can stop some of his bleedings and heal some wounds. But it won't be able to heal all the damage. And if I healed him now I would run out of stamina to stay in this form. Once we're on your ship. I'll heal him." Marco said to me flapping his wings.
" That's fine, save your stamina," I said to him with a smile on my face.
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And that's the end of the chapter folks
Another long chapter and this one at 2000+ words. I'm quite happy with that. The last two chapters are 1500+ words. I didn't think I can write that much in 2 days lol.
Drop some power stones if you liked the chapter also leave some comments as well. They help to let me know that my story is actually being read, and well-received.
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