A Mountainous Dare

**Date Started:** April 17, 2020
**Date Completed:** December 24, 2021
**Previous Roleplay:** A Boatload of Trouble
**Next Roleplay:** Safe Haven
**Users Involved:** User:Arukana, User:Berserkchart486, User:Starving Skeleton, User:Black Dwarf Star, User:Great Achlus
**Setting:** Unnamed Island (New World), 1578
**Characters Involved**:
* **Pirates:** Wayland, Ford Henrietta, Titania, Whisper O. Dare, Cormac G. Jacquotte, Yuki

## Midsummer Night's Dream

It had been several hours since Wayland and Henrietta left Nassau ー the infamous island under the jurisdiction of the Shichibukai Kenway Veno ー following their reunion and subsequent encounter with the mercenary Shaka and Commodore Omen Armani of the Marines, ending with the death and defeat of their respective opponents. There had also been a slight problem regarding a purple-haired customer who didn't pay Henrietta for the repairs and upgrades made to her ship but considering it had been destroyed in the midst of their battle, it was water under the bridge and there seemed to be hints that she didn't make it out the wreckage. Nonetheless, it had been a momentous event for the duo following two years of not seeing one another and it was only the beginning of their new adventure.

Which leads them to their current situation.

"My arms are starting to get tired." Wayland muttered, glancing down at the shimmering sunlight reflect off the surface of the ocean, briefly blinding him as they zoomed overhead at highspeed. Tired of witnessing the same view he had seen over the course of this flight, he shifted his attention above him as he was greeted with the sight of Henrietta looking ahead at the ever-distant skyline, focusing on their destination...which he realized he had no idea where they were going. Usually, he would have reservations against going off in an unknown location but Wayland had confidence in Henrietta, being she was one of the smarter members of the Buster Pirates and figured she had a plan in mind. Besides, that wasn't what he was worried about.

His eyes shifted towards her legs, specifically the jet exhausts, as he noticed they weren't exuding the same level of force in comparison to the beginning of their journey. While he didn't have an exact understanding of how her Devil Fruit worked, Wayland had basic knowledge based on what she had told him in the past and he knew every action preformed under the pretense of her unique ability required "fuel". This meant if she preformed multiple actions or a specific action for a long time, her fuel would deplete until it was empty and she replenished her reserves. From the looks of it, she was already starting to run low as it was.

Normally, he would offer to take over and simply use Geppo to soar across the ocean but he had his own weapons and supplies in his comically over-sized duffle-bag. There was virtually no way he could carry the both of them at the same time without something going wrong.

"Henrietta, everything okay up there for you? You've been flying for a long time, after all." Wayland said, unintentionally convey his worry through squeezing her hands. "If you need to rest, we can take a break."

Although Henrietta’s facial expressions were masked by her respirator—meant to prevent her waste products from killing her allies—her eyes were the most revealing of her emotions if anything. They drooped which meant, much like any other person, she was tired. She knew how observative Wayland was, so there was no point in lying to him, not that she was even sure she could.

“Yeah,” Henrietta replied, beginning her statement with her casual filler word, “I’m running out of fuel, kiddo, and fast. We don’t even have enough to get us another fifteen minutes. When it’s gone, we’re falling.”

She gave an island in the distance a pointed look.

“There’s an island that doesn’t pop up in any of my databases, unidentified, and perhaps untouched. Maybe there’s tons of oil there, and petrol, so that I can refill, and we can be on our way. Possibly might have materials to make a raft or something too, and we can ride that till we hit another major island,” she explained. “But, that’ll be our pit stop, if that’s cool with you kiddo.”

She took his silence as an indication of his agreement. Thus, she curved her trajectory, and redirected her position so that they could hit the island within a matter of minutes, and they did.

They landed on the beach of the unidentified land, gracefully as opposed to the hard-landing they had on the ship when chasing it earlier. The moment her feet touched the ground, and Wayland was comfortably standing on his own, her entire body dropped onto the sand.

"Ahhh, I'm fucking *exhausted*...."

She glanced up.

"Get it?"

"Hilarious. You should try doing stand-up comedy." Wayland replied in a deadpan voice, setting his duffle bag on the ground before stretching his arms as the sound of bones popping could be heard. Letting out a sigh of relief, he looked around at the island and frowned at how desolate the island appeared. Henrietta's assessment of the island being untouched seemed to be accurate, meaning they would only need to worry about whatever creatures lived on the island and with the two of them, he was certain they'd take on whatever came their way. Picking up his duffle bag once more, he glanced over at the sitting Henrietta and offered her a hand.

"Unless you want me to carry you, we've gotta get a move on." He said with a shrug.

“Carry me, eh?” Henrietta replied, taking Wayland’s offer to help her up. “I weigh a couple fuckin tons kiddo,” she continued, pulling herself to her feet. “Not sure if you could lift a broad like me.”

She gave Wayland a smirk, and a pat on his head, as she usually did while taking a few steps away from her. She pulled down her mask momentarily and exhaled deeply.

“My question is where do you wanna go? You got a plan or something?”

"Not really. With the exception of waiting for you to recharge, our best bet is to go out and hopefully find some oil." Wayland expressed openly, rubbing the spot where Henrietta pat him with an annoyed expression. It was unfortunate that they were unable to take his ship but with the lack of winds within the Calm Belt, there was no way for them to properly navigate through said ocean. In fact, the only reason why Wayland was successfully able to reach Nassau was due to "hitching" a ride from a school of sea creatures, using them to pull his boat to the island after "persuading" them.

It was a shame that Zack still had Rave Skull, recalling the various luxuries aboard the vessel.

"Hold on a second, let me try something real quick." With a deep breath, Wayland closed his eyes before accessing his Kenbunshoku Haki as the range of his senses extended far beyond their normal reach. In a matter of seconds, the blacksmith was capable of sensing the life force of the various creatures on the island, running about their daily lives. "Hmm?!" His brow furrowed upon, sensing a different life signature in comparison to the animals. It was certainly human, or humanoid at the very least, and deeper within the island.

Opening his eyes, Wayland looked off in the distance where he felt the presence from. "Seems like there *is* someone on this island after all. Come on, let's see if we can find this person." He said, walking off in the distance towards where he sensed them. "If we are lucky, they'll have an idea about oil sources throughout this place."

A sound suddenly reverberated through the tree line. It was loud, deep, clearly the voice of animals. Yet it was almost like a warning. Looking at the nearby trees on the island, one would see black monkeys, looking directly at the pirates that had just arrived on the island. They sounded angry, howling at them. After all, those familiar with zoology would know that these were howler monkeys, and they only made this sound when threatened.

"Huh?" Henrietta huffed, putting her hands on her hip as she glanced around, inspecting the monkeys. Although she had ears, they were truthfully sensors that detected sound and inputted back towards her cyber-mind. Unlike a person, she could entirely shut them off if she desired, or even adjust them so that the volume detected would lessen. Still, it didn't make these howls any less annoying.

"The fuck is their problem?"

"Huh? What the..." Wayland looked over in confusion, being drawn to the loud noise caused by the monkeys. However, unlike Henrietta who simply heard the annoying sound of screeching, Wayland could hear the actual words spoken between the animals. The words "Intruder!" and "Look out!" were repeated with such urgency that he realized that they were acting as sentries, warning someone or something of their presence on the island.

Narrowing his eyes, Wayland reached into his duffle bag and pulled out two throwing knives. reeling his right arm back as he took aim at the howling creatures. Suddenly, his arm exploded forth like a catapult as the throwing knives were released from his grasp, soaring towards the pair of black monkeys with deadly speed and precision to silence them.

Something brown, just as fast as the knives Wayland had thrown came out from the brush of the trees, knocking them off course. A second flash of white jumped from the tree line, landing a few meters away from the pirates. It was another monkey, a different breed than the other ones with a more bulbous, nose and white fur. It glared at the two of them, cracking its knuckles as if it were preparing for a fight. It made a few quiet noises, but Wayland would hear him loud and clear. "*Humans.*"

"Hmm, monkey." Wayland responded in kind, dropping his duffle bag to the ground as his eyes looked over the creature with keen interest. While his plan was to drawing out whoever the monkeys were shouting warnings at by attacking them, he definitely wasn't expecting another monkey to show up and intercept his knives at such level of speed. While he was able to track it, Wayland could tell that this monkey had undergone some serious training to move at such speed.

It was certainly unnatural to say the least.

"So, I can only guess you are the leader amongst your chimp friends." Wayland pointed out, keeping his senses open. "That or another pet of whoever set them up to act as watchers."

The monkey's hands began to rapidly move in front of Wayland, not as a movement of offense, but communication. It was clear that he was making several hand gestures, albeit, what they meant, the pirates couldn't tell. When he was done, he turned back towards the forest, running back into it as the howler monkeys began calling once again.

"Well, that was something." Wayland said in an annoyed tone, wondering what the hell they just witnessed. There was definitely something going on here and it seemed as though they were being involved in it whether they wanted to or not. His train of thought was interrupted by the howler monkeys still screaming their heads off, warning whoever it was they answered to. At this point, Wayland didn't care and wanted to be as far as way from them as possible.

"Come on, Henrietta." He said, retrieving his duffle bag. "Those monkeys aren't gonna shut up and we definitely don't want to stay here for whoever they are warning."

“Yeah, yeah,” Henrietta replied, continuing forward dismissively, unafraid, nor concerned about the monkeys. “While we’re walking, you can tell me what they said though, word from word. It’ll keep me fuckin’ entertained, or somethin’.”

The troupe of howler monkeys continued shouting at the approaching pirates. At first they shouted things like "Humans!" "Murderers!" "Thieves!" "Liars!" all sorts of rude things. But just as quickly, that devolved into random shouting, a primal emotion, rage, focused solely on these humans that dare to invade their territory.

"Sure, if you find mindless screaming to be fun." Wayland shrugged, glancing out of the corner at the screeching animals. While their shouting made no sense, the young man couldn't help but think they weren't specifically referring to them but humans in general. Whatever the case was, it wasn't up to him to deal with problems they had with humans.

"While we're at it, you can probably explain to me how you ended up on Nassau of all places."

She smirked.

“Oh, were you worried about me, kiddo?”

"Don't be insane." Wayland replied, rolling his eyes at teasing undertone in her voice. "After seeing what you can do, I'd be more worried for anyone trying to pull something on you."

Henrietta paused, putting her finger on her chin in thought. "So then, you weren't worried about me? And here I was, thinking that you had finally grown into a man and were about to confess your undying love for me."

Wayland immediately froze upon hearing the words spoken by Henrietta, feeling his face heat up in embarrassment at the image running through his head. "I-uh-well-I mean..." Unable to figure out a proper response while his face began to resemble that of a cherry, he simply flipped his hood atop of his head to keep her from looking at him. "Geez, always back to that kind of stuff? Of course, I was worried about ya. That's why I came searching for you, after all."

Coughing to regain his composure, Wayland heard the screams of the monkeys and frowned at the repeated phrases. "Anyways, the monkeys are just saying stuff like 'humans', 'murderers', 'thieves' and 'liars'. If I had to guess, they really don't like us as a whole."

Henrietta smiled. "Yeah, sounds about right," she said, looking around at the island, before stopping. She threw her arm out in front of Wayland, halting him, and walked to a nearby tree.

"Ah, yeah, this shit is about to hit the spot. Literally," she mumbled, scooping up a pile of poop into her hand. Henrietta looked at Wayland. "Hey, um...turn around, okay?"

"Uh, okay..." Wayland said with a weirded out expression, turning around as Henrietta requested.

"L-Look, Wayland...NOT LITERALLY," she corrected quickly, almost immediately. "D-Do you know the major ingredient of gasoline?"

Wayland blinked at the sudden question before answering. "Well, I know petroleum, or oil, is one of the main ingredients in gasoline. There is also methane, propane, and a bunch of other stuff I can't recall off the top of my head which is in it."

"Right! Methane! You are exactly correct, kiddo."

She paused, allowing the sickening crunch to be heard a brief moment after.

"A-And did you know that animal dung is very rich in methane, Wayland?"

"Yeah, I think I heard about it before but why are y-oh. Oh! OHHHH!" The realization of Henrietta's words struck Wayland like a fright train, understanding what she was exactly hinting at. Immediately, his face turned a sickly shade of green as it occurred to him what Henrietta was about to do.

"H-hold on, you don't need to go that far." Wayland said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "We've barely started exploring this island. Maybe there is an abandoned ship with oil here."

"T-Too late...."

Henrietta continued staring at Wayland, having taken the last bite out of the dried animal dung. The crunch earlier was her first bite, and the second was all she needed. Unlike people, she had no concept of smell; her body was incapable of detecting that sense due. Instead, her nose had been replaced with sensors ideal for picking out the concentration of gases, substances, and chemicals in the air. The dung didn't smell gross to her, and as a scientist, she viewed it as a precious resource. But, to devour it in front of someone was nothing short of embarrassing.

She coughed. "U-Um, should we keep on moving?"

Wayland was silent for a moment, processing what he had witnessed before shaking his head. There was *no way* he could possibly judge Henrietta for doing what she did. Despite how utterly disgusting it was, the technician had done it for their sake and that certainly took guts in his opinion. "Yeah, we should get a move on."

As he prepared to turn around, Wayland recalled something as he reached into his duffle bag and pulled out two bottles of water. "Here, at least this will help get the rest of it out of our mouth."

Had it not been for the monkeys howling in the background, there would have been a fraught silence as Henrietta took the water bottle. Though, there was something that Wayland said that had caught her attention; a detail that she could have never let go unnoticed, solely because it was impossible for her brain to do so.

She took a gulp of the water, swished it around in her mouth, and then spit it out.

"So.....*our* mouth, huh? That's a little bold of you, kiddo."

Wayland's face flushed up once more, realizing the mistake he made. Sputtering, he attempted to correct himself. "W-W-Wait, I d-d-didn't mean it like that. I was trying to say your mouth, not our mouth!."

The sounds of the howler monkeys became even louder and more wild at that point, but no longer were they just fanatical sounds of rage, now they were forming sentences again.

"*What the hell is wrong with her?*"

"*She ate our shit! No one's supposed to eat our shit!*"

"*At least not humans!*"

"*Our shit is for the goats!*"

"*Just wait until Dare shows up, he'll give 'em what's for!*"

*Elsewhere...*
"What use is a navigator if I can't SAIL A SHIP!?" Titania screamed. The warm sands of this mysterious island's beach would've soothed had she not stood before her own wrecked ship. "Dammit. Dammit. Dammit!" She rubbed her temple in anger and frustration before letting out one final angered groan. Sending forth waves of birds that scattered out the nearby forest.

Titania turned around and faced the endless sea of massive trees. With only a massive mountain poking from the center. "I wonder if there's anybody here who can help me..." She asked herself. "Although I should stay here and try to wave a passing ship down....BUT WHAT IF ONE DOESN'T COME?!"

She turned back to the oncoming waves which gently kissed her shoes. "And flying isn't an option...who knows how far I am from the next island."

"Caw!" a sound was suddenly made, piercing through the air. It was a black bird, one of the many that Titania's earlier tantrum had scared off. It seemed as though was the only one left. "Caw!" it sounded again. It titled its head to the side as it looked at the dark-skinned woman.

Titania jumped. "Gah!" She uttered before turning to the black bird. Usually animals fled from the giant woman. But this one seemed to catch her attention. Titania approached it carefully.

"Caw!" The bird flapped its wings as Titania approached. It clearly was disturbed by her presence, yet it didn't yet want to flee. Perhaps it was being territorial. Or perhaps it was something else entirely. "Caw! Caw!"

Titania continued to approach it. Almost entranced by its menacing caw. Her eyes locked ont he bird without the slightest hesitation. She kneeled down.

"Are you hungry?" She asked lovingly.

"Caw!" the bird flapped its wings, flying into her face and scratching at her eyes, only making a few quick motions before immediately flying away, deeper into the island.

"Ah fuck!? Dammit I'm going to get you!" Titania screamed while swiping at her face in a rabid attempt to get rid of the crow. "Oh no you fucking don't!"

**8 Wind Rose!**

She screamed. Light emerging from beneath her before the humming sound died. She jumped forward, after the crow, with a powerful leap. However rather than simply fall down as all other creatures would've, the woman started to soar through the air in a rapid dash.

"GET BACK HERE!" She roared.

It would be just as soon as Titania started chasing after the crow that she'd suddenly find herself under a shadow. "Caw! Caw!" a tempest of "caws" sounded as the largest murder of crows one had ever seen blotted out the sun.

"Caw!" shouted the crow being chased by Titania, as the the birds began to dive-bomb the young woman.

## Fairy Queen

A noticeable amount of time passed as the two continued walking throughout the forest and doing so in their usual bicker with Henrietta frequently teasing him, and Wayland defending himself and his pride. Honestly, Henrietta found him amusing. However, amidst their stroll, her ears caught wind of something: a person.

“Shut up real quick, kiddo,” Henrietta said, interrupting Wayland’s sentence. “You hear that shit, don’t you?”

Wayland instinctively paused in the middle of his sentence, noticing the serious look on Henrietta's face before listening closely for whatever tipped her off. For a moment, there wasn't a single sound around them outside of the common noises being made throughout the forest. However, that swiftly changed as he heard the faint sound of a voice enter his ears. "Yeah, there is someone else here on this island, it seems."

His eyes shined brilliantly as a streak of crimson light trailed within his pupil, using his Kenbunshoku Haki once more to search for the person in question. "I think I found 'em. They are apparently being chased by...birds?"

"Ah...birds, the bane of my fuckin' existence," Henrietta sighed. "Listen, kiddo, I usually don't get involved in other people's shit, but we gotta on this one. There's no way we can leave her to fend to these birds alone, you know?"

She turned her body.

"She's that way. Let's go save her, okay?"

"Fair enough." Wayland nodded in agreement. While he wasn't one to get involved with people's business, he had been raised by a former marine since he was a child and had a strong moral compass. He just didn't like admitting it often. "Let's get a move on. I don't know what type of birds they are but if its anything like those monkeys, they probably aren't the biggest fans of humans."

Surrounded by birds.

Titania didn't think *this* would be how she'd spend her time in the Grand Line. The daughter of a famous Paradise pirate, she expected at least a couple more deadly battles. But here she was fighting a bunch of black-feathered chickens! Her body swung round as she threw punches and kicks. Kyahs! and Gah! accompanied each angered strike.

While her attacks managed to bring down one or two birds with each swing, the swarm itself was too large to be taken out that easily. They surrounded her like a black sun, going to scratch and peck at every part of her body. Cawing and screeching the entire time. They were out for blood. It truly was a murder of crows.

"Hey! Scram off, ya damn buzzards!" Wayland's voice penetrated the constant cawing and screeching of the murderous swarm as he held a heavily modified revolver within his left hand. The Red Dead Revolver, a weapon he had created during his time being stranded on Wildweyst prior to meeting the Buster Pirate. A reliable firearm in the hands of a novice and a deadly tool in the hands of an expert.

Without hesitation for a second, Wayland pulled the trigger of the firearm while using his fight hand to cock back the hammer repeatedly in a slapping-like fashion, unleashing a salvo of bullets towards the birds that were attacking Titania.

From the sounds of alone, the crows cawed and dispersed, a few dead ones laying on the ground as the murder flew deeper inland, the sound of them lessening more and more the further they went away.

Henrietta smiled. The sound of the gunshots, the scrambling of the birds as they desperately flapped away. It was all so reminiscent of a time before everything was complicated. She remembers waking up at the crack of dawn, watching her father leave the house as he always did, his rifle in hand. She would beg him to go with him, and usually, her mother would deny her the opportunity, but occasionally, there were few times where she could follow.

They would sit and wait for a flock of ravens, or crows, or whatever was brave to pass by them, and her father would let out every bullet he had. She remembered asking why they needed so many, and his reply would be the same, *“You’re a hungry girl, you know.”*

She exhaled deeply as she allowed herself to move on from the past into the present. She took a step forward, putting her hand on Wayland’s shoulder gently.

“Good shootin.”

Her compliment was direct and to the point, as she was, but there was a difference in tone. It was not accompanied with a “kiddo”, or some other phrase. It was genuine. Truly genuine.

Though, as she took a step forward, her eyes revealing to her the dark-skinned woman, she stopped.

“You okay, stranger?”

Titania ducked beneath the oncoming barrage of bullets and turned into a tucked roll. Landing gracefully before rubbing her bum. "I'm...I'm fine." Titania responded grudgingly. She hated having to be saved. *She* can't be a damsel in distress. Not with his blood running through her veins.

"But thank you. Those damned birds were getting annoying." Titania spoke with a calm yet stern voice filled with a hidden power. Her chocolate skin radiated in the sun, complimented by hair colored a deep deep shade of red. Gold jewelry covered her body but what stood out the most was the golden circlet sitting atop her forehead.

"My name's Titania. And I'm lost!"

"Well, seems like we arrived right in the nick of time." Wayland said, holstering the Red Dead Revolver before placing it back within his duffle bag. Turning his attention towards Titania, his eyes briefly widened upon seeing her towering height as his neck creaked back to stare at her. It wasn't that big of a deal, considering the large number of people similar or exceeding height in the world but it was somewhat unfitting.

"So..." He spoke, regaining his thoughts. "What exactly are you looking for here? Your friends>"

"F-friends?" Titania answered nervously. "Ha! You've no idea who I am and who my parents are!!!" She roared proudly. "I don't need friends. I'm a warrior at heart. I just...got lost...and then the next thing I know those birds were after me."

"Don't need 'em, huh?" Wayland muttered, scratching the back of his head at the statement. While he had personal objections against that, it wasn't his business to correct her on that. It just seemed so nostalgic to him. "Well, I guess we are sorta stranded here for the time being. Maybe we can help each other out?"

The white monkey moved swiftly and quietly through the trees. It hadn't taken him much time since his altercation with Wayland to arrive here. His crew had only been there for a few weeks, but they had managed to get the lay of the land. The monkey finally descended, running over to the mouth of a cave, before excitedly moving his hands.

"What is it, Yuki?" said a deep, almost monstrous, voice.

"*Captain! There are humans on the island!*"

"Humans!" the voice bellowed from the inside of the cave. "How long have they been here?"

"*Not long, just a few hours. They attacked our vanguards in the monkey and crow division.*"

"This is unacceptable!" The source of the voice began to walk to the exit, still not quite visible in the light of day, but his monstrous figure was silhouetted in the dark. "Jacquotte! Get the SMILEs ready! We've got some humans to kill!"

Her temper flared. Why did they have to come here? Didn't they have other places to trash? She stood, her bright scarlet locks faintly visible in the dark. Her weapon was soon in hand. She then tuned into her "network", locating the various SMILEs under her control.

*"It's time."* The mental command rang down the line, it's tone leaving no room for refusal. SMILEs that had been sleeping were jostled awake, coming sharply to attention. Good. She gave a few moments more before speaking aloud once more.

"They're ready to be moved out."

"Alright then," the beast snarled, walking out of the dark, "let's go meet 'em."

His appearance had drastically changed since his earlier days in the public eye. He was covered in dark-colored fur, his once orange eyes were now without and iris or pupils, just white. He looked like a humanoid wolf, with a bushy tail and everything, and had forgone every article of clothing, aside from his pants.

This was Whisper O. Dare, captain of the Animalia Pirates, a pirate whose bounty had gone up to 313,000,000.

"Yuki, show us where they are."

The snow-white monkey began quickly signing before running off towards the shore, his superior officers following closely behind. Yuki's bounty had gone up as well. It went up to 700.

“Of course, we can help one another,” Henrietta interjected, taking another bite out of the animal remnants, the crunch lost amid the clamor that persisted in the jungles of the animal paradise. “We can’t leave the damsel out here by herself. Can’t you tell by her crown, kiddo? She’s fuckin’ royalty, which means we can trade her for some supplies and stuff. Ain’t that right, darlin’?”

"D-damsel?! R-royalty?!!!!" She repeated. Each word objectively louder than the last. She quickly turned to Henrietta and scowled. "Watch who're calling darling before I get my father to smash your head in!" Not that she would know who her father was, right? Titania groaned before taking a deep breath.

"I'm sorry its been a long day. I'm not a damsel...but I wouldn't mind some help navigating this island. I crashed here not too long ago and its just been one shit show after another." She admitted. Titania seemed unfazed by Henrietta's snack. After all, stranger things have happened since she entered the New World.

"Sure, we could do that." Wayland shrugged, electing to keep his opinion about her being royalty to himself. The fact she talked about getting her father to smash their heads in didn't exactly help her case. "Though, we're gonna need ya to get us off this island in exchange, if that's fair with you."

Henrietta consumed the last bit of the animal dung like it was a piece of beef jerky. “Wouldn’t matter if it were fair or not. Damsel ain’t got much of a choice. We’ll help you navigate this island, and I’ll be taking the remnants of your ship and we’ll use that to escape this gross ass island.”

She took a step forward, peering through the forest, scanning for any visible organic life forms.

“Now, what do you need to be navigated towards, damsel?”

"Well I know my ship is that way?" Titania pointed. However she was sure that he finger aimed towards everywhere except where she needed to go. She sucked with directions. Ironic considering she-

"Wait! DON'T MAKE THIS ABOUT ME WHY'RE YOU GUYS HERE?!" She screamed with fire in her voice. "I'M SURE YOU'RE JUST AS LOST AS I AM!"

"Not really." Wayland replied with a stoic expression, briefly taking a moment to clean one of his ears with a pinky. "We aren't really lost. More so in need of a way to gather fuel in order to leave this place. Of course, hitching a ride off of you also works in our favor."

Henrietta clicked her tongue. "Bingo. I got a whole compass embedded in my brain. What type of dumb bitch would get lost when she got compass in her head?"

Oh the irony! But Titania decided to let this one go. Instead she pressed onward. "Fine! Lead the way than oh mighty smart bitch with a compass in her head."

"This is getting stupid." Wayland sighed, looking between Henrietta and Titania. "Let's just get a move on then. What exactly does this ship of yours look like?"

"My ship looks...like a ship." Titania responded. "Don't get an attitude with me. You offered to help!"

"Yeah, an offer which I'm starting to regret." Wayland muttered, placing a hand on his forehead while shaking it. Letting out a sigh, he raised his head once more. "Whatever. We might as well get a move on and get to searching for this ship of yours, princess."

## How Dare You!?

The trio of those new to the island, those that the animals deemed invaders, would soon come to find the one that presently held dominion over the land. Not because they would run into him by accident, he had been seeking them out since he found out they were there.

Birds cawed, flying from the trees further inland, rustling and shaking as something barreled towards them. And it would arrive in only a few moments. A wolf-like man jumped through the brush, landing on the beach to face against the others, a parade of animals of all kinds following behind him. Whisper O. Dare turned his head towards the sky, screaming as a giant, blue laser flew from his mouth.

He pointed at the invaders, snarling like a beast. "You!" he shouted, "All three of you will die for your transgressions! I'll rip you to shreds!"

"Shut the hell up!" Wayland roared in frustration, placing a hand on his forehead due to the loud ringing caused by the exposure to the mysterious wolfman's loud roar. Today just kept getting weirder and weirder for the young blacksmith and quite frankly, he was so over it. "God, that voice..." After a moment, he no longer heard the mind-wrenching noise within his mind and focused his attention on *whatever the hell* this was. "Alright, Fido. What's your deal with us?"

"My *deal* with you?" Dare said, almost sarcastically, "You're humans! Everything wrong with the world is your fault! And it's my goal to wipe your filth from the face of the earth!"

The animals behind him roared, chirped, called, bleated, made the sounds of every creature in the animal kingdom to show their approval. "They all agree with me as well. We're wiping out humanity! You'll regret the day you every trespassed on my island! Jacquotte!"

No time like the present. Having positioned herself in a tree further away for both the cover and high vantage point, she aimed her weapon, pinpointing the targets which had drawn her captain's ire. Black film rippled across her armament, before coalescing around the barrel. A silencer.

The moment Dare said her name, she fired, three shots in rapid succession. All designed to incapacitate. Why? So the real punishment could begin right after.

Henrietta’s response was computer-like, quick and calculated, almost automatic in a sense as the bullets came surging through the air with remarkable precision. They were charged with Busoshoku Haki, and, as much as she would have loved to do something about that, there were few defenses in her arsenal equipped to deal with directly.

As she stepped forward, pulling Titania and Wayland back in a simultaneous motion, her lips parted, and the fumes that escaped from her mouth had been momentarily replaced with what appeared to be frost. She put her hand outward, facing the bullets, releasing a wave of cool, thermal energy that completely froze the area in front of them, creating a dense, thick wall of ice that absorbed the grunt of the bullet’s momentum until they simply stopped.

“There’s a sniper kiddo,” Henrietta replied, “and this ice wall isn’t going to hold up much longer. They’ll have to reposition if they want to have an immediate impact, but I wager two or three more rounds of shots, and this wall is going to come crumbling down like that one bridge from those fuckin’ fairy tales…the one about Nodonl.”

"I have no idea what you are talking about but I'll take your word for it." Wayland responded with a dull tone, looking past the wall in order to analyze the overall situation. There was an angry wolfman standing in front of them, a sniper hidden in the forest and a gaggle of wild animals surrounding them. It sounded like one of those set-ups for a lame bar joke he had heard dozen of times. Unfortunately, his luck often resulted in a series of events which constantly went wrong for him.

"Alright, we don't know how long until that sniper reloads or Fido and his merry band of pets descend on us, so here's the plan." With a commanding voice, Wayland looked between Henrietta and Titania with his crimson eyes. "One of you two will need to locate the sniper and take 'em down while the other will have to take on the animal house we've got around us. In the meantime, I'll go put down Ol' Yeller over there."

Henrietta’s response was computer-like, quick and calculated, almost automatic in a sense as the bullets came surging through the air with remarkable precision. They were charged with Busoshoku Haki, and, as much as she would have loved to do something about that, there were few defenses in her arsenal equipped to deal with directly.

As she stepped forward, pulling Titania and Wayland back in a simultaneous motion, her lips parted, and the fumes that escaped from her mouth had been momentarily replaced with what appeared to be frost. She put her hand outward, facing the bullets, releasing a wave of cool, thermal energy that completely froze the area in front of them, creating a dense, thick wall of ice that absorbed the grunt of the bullet’s momentum until they simply stopped.

“There’s a sniper kiddo,” Henrietta replied, “and this ice wall isn’t going to hold up much longer. They’ll have to reposition if they want to have an immediate impact, but I wager two or three more rounds of shots, and this wall is going to come crumbling down like that one bridge from those fuckin’ fairy tales…the one about Nodonl.”

Wayland had grown. It wasn’t like Henrietta could ever forget much, if anything, unless on purpose, but the files that remained etched in her hard drive of a cerebellum pulled forth memories of Wayland from a time not too long ago, where he could barely even look her in her face out of nervousness. Now, here he was, commanding her with conviction. She couldn’t help but smile at his growth.

“Of course, sir,” she replied. Even though Henrietta felt some concern, she did not allow it to seep into her tone; she wanted Wayland to think that she has the utmost confidence in him, which she did, in emotion, but Henrietta was a deeply analytical creature, and there were literal millions of scenarios that ran throughout her brain in which every result was a possibility. There simply wasn’t enough information for her to make a legitimate hypothesis on their chances of victory, so, her body worked to make one, and not all of them ended as well as she would have liked.

*What if this wolf man is much stronger than Wayland? What if his devil fruit makes in him invunernable? What if, what if,*

Her brain was filled with what ifs. Still, she couldn’t allow her analysis to cloud her judgment on data that she did not have.

“Hey, broad,” Henrietta called out, glancing towards the wall, “I was able to calculate where the bullets came from based on their trajectory, and their impact on the wall. I have a rough idea of where she may be, but my data isn’t solid. Too much time has passed between the first shots and right now, to be frank. Additionally, whoever sniping might have some weird ass ability where they can turn and curve their bullets, which mean they could be somewhere entirely different,” she informed. “But, considering that the bullets didn’t alter their course from when I erected the wall, I think that possibility is low. But it’s also possible that she just didn’t know I had that ability…”

Henrietta paused, exhaling deeply. She was overthinking again, and overtalking.

“The shots came from a tree, high up, a few hundred meters past the ice-wall,” she said blankly. “Can you take her?”

It was like it was at the speed of sound. Just as Dare's roar would reach their ears, a blast of energy would collide with the wall Henrietta had erected. If it could barely withstand any more bullets, then the resulting blast of Dare's screech would certainly send the trio reeling. It was the power of the Goe Goe no Mi, one which allowed the user to turn their screams into pure kinetic force.

"Did you seriously think I was going to just sit here and let you plan?" said Dare, "I'll gut all three of you before me and my friends feast on your corpses! The crows really love the meet freshly dead!"

Titania was overtaken by fear. So much so she could only watch as her savior yanked her behind a wall of ice that suddenly erupted into existence. She stood still. Her body trembling as they created this masterful plan...a plan she couldn't hear thanks to the loud ringing in her ears. Useless. Useless. She sunk deep within her subconscious to the point of missing Henrietta's question.

*"Why am I like this?"* Titania asked herself. *"I-I would've died if not for her...I can't...I can't...*

A massive shining light grew rapidly. The ice woman was so wrapped up in her thoughts, she somehow missed this giant blast's ferocious approach

**"8-Wind Rose!"**

Black lines exploded beneath her footing. Creating a gigantic circle beneath the trio. With swift eyes one would notice that the circle was decorated heavily with markings. N. S. E. W. NE. SE. SW. NW. She swung her hand outward and commanded.

**"SOUTH WEST!"**

The blast would stop right before Henrietta's ice wall before flying back at Dare's parade. But rather than slam into the wolfman, his blue laser flew towards the largest of his comrades.

"Even if she can change the trajectory of her bullets...that'd mean nothing to a **Compass Human**!"

The animals seemed to cower at the sudden redirection of Dare's power. They had never seen anyone counter it in such a way. Was it truly their captain's, their friend's, power that would do them in?

The ground seemed to crack underneath Dare before he moved in an instant. His hand became black with Haki as a sheen of green covered its exterior. He smacked the beam, it flying out over into the ocean before detonating in a small explosion out in the sea. Dare turned towards Titania, snarling, appearing even more feral than he already did.

"HOW DARE YOOOUUUUUU!"

He crouched down onto all fours, his muscles bulging as he prepared to pounce. "When we're done with you, there won't be anything but shit left to bury!"

"Don't blame us for your own actions, Fido!" Wayland scowled, standing tall from behind the icy wall. It was clear the blacksmith was incredibly annoyed at how Dare tried to throw the blame onto them. What were they supposed to do, simply roll over and die at his request? "How about you put your money where your mouth is, doggy? Come on, boy!" With a taunting voice, he even clapped his hands and beckoned him over like a dog. "Come on, I'll even take you for a walk!"

Green emanated from Dare's hands and feet. Initially appearing as a sort of wisp, it soon crystalized into a solid form. It seemed as if the claws and limbs of another animal had replaced his own, or more accurately, he had used its power to cover himself. "**Beast Mimicry...**" It happened in an instant. One second he was at his starting position, and the next he was coming from around Henrietta's ice barrier. "**Cheetah Claws!**" With his Haki-laced claws, he thrusted forward, aiming to impale Wayland in his side. The sheer kinetic force was enough to completely shatter a boulder, while the attack rivaled even the World Government's **Soru** in raw speed. It was those two things combined that made this attack truly devastating.

As Dare's blackened claws surged forth to skewer into Wayland's ribs, the young blacksmith stood calmly without an ounce of fear, eyes covered by his shaggy brown hair. For a moment, it appeared as though Dare was going to be successful in his attack before a single word escaped from his target's mouth. "*Kami-e*..." With a level of unnatural flexibility, Wayland's body moved like paper fluttering in the wind as he bent out the path of path of the incoming strike. In the midst of his dodging, his hair fluttered out of his eyes to reveal the signature red light of Kenbunshoku Haki as a smirk graced his lips.

"Should have kept your eye on the ball, Fido." With his mocking tone, Wayland clenched his hand tightly into a fist as Haki permeated the limb, coating it within a sheen of blackness. "**Tekkai "Tekken"!'**" Letting out a loud roar, his blackened fist exploded forth as his muscles were tensed to the point where he could no longer naturally move on his own volition but had benefit of enhancing his overall strength. This attack was on a one-way course directly towards Dare's unguarded stomach with the force of a charging bull.

"*Kami-e?*" thought Dare. He had seen this attack before. Over all the years he spent terrorizing islands and killing people there had been a few marines that attempted to get in his way. Some had managed to repel him, others met the same fate of the ones they were protecting. But regardless, it was still strange to see someone not in the World Government using Rokushiki. He had only seen it used by one other pirate before. And in his many altercations, his own power had adapted.

"**Snake Skin!**" Dare's body seemed to curve out of the way of Wayland's punch, as Wayland's body had against Dare previously. It wasn't just that, his whole body was shifting and moving, stretching like it was made of rubber. He would begin to wrap around Wayland's arm, like the snake whose movements he had been emulating, with the strength of a boa constrictor behind him. "My eye's always on the prize! Eradicating you human filth!"

"Here I thought dogs were meant to be man's best friend." Wayland muttered, unconsciously frowning upon feeling the tightness around his arm as Dare attempted to use his body in order to simultaneously constrict and crush the blacksmith's limb. For any other person, their muscles and bones would been crushed underneath the unnatural amounts of pressure being exerted onto them. Fortunately, in the case of Wayland, his muscles were already tightened to the point they were comparable to a suit of armor due to his usage of *Tekkai*, preventing the wolf-man's actions from coming to fruition. "Alright, if that's how you want to play, how about I take you for a ride?"

With a deep breath, Wayland relaxed the muscles within his body with the exception of the arm Dare was currently coiled around. Normally, this would be considered impossible as Tekkai centered around hardening *all* of the user's muscles within their body. However, over the course of his training, the blacksmith discovered he had a natural aptitude for controlling his body to the point where he could preform feats beyond normal comprehension. One of these feats was selective Tekkai, hardening specific body parts while keeping the result relaxed. In simple terms, he was flexing a body part super hard.

"*Soru*!" In an explosive burst of speed, Wayland took off like a bullet as he dashed away, heading directly towards the forest adjacent towards them. With his arm held out towards the incoming, his intention was clear as day, intending on preforming a lariat on the tree in order to slam Dare through them. The main purpose of this wasn't to simply cause injury to his foe but to put some distance between Henrietta and Titania.

Dare wasn't quite prepared for a maneuver such as this. Even if his attack hadn't proved successful in injuring the young pirate, he would've expected Wayland or his allies would've tried to get him off first. But Wayland's instincts and thought process had been flawless. This was certainly much easier.

Dare's back hardened, hexagonal shapes appearing on it as his Haki took form, before Wayland used him as a battering ram against the tree. He broke through it easily, Wayland was that strong and Dare was that durable. Uncoiling from around Wayland's arm, using the kinetic force to gain some distance, he landed he landed on his feet. He cracked his head, getting down onto all fours as he prepared his next strike. The more wooded environment just inside the forest would certainly play to his strengths.

"Animalia Pirates!" Dare called, "Eradicate the women! This mouthy one is all mine!"

The animals did as instructed; snakes, rams, bulls, elephants, gorillas, chimps, it seemed as though the entire animal kingdom was closing in on the pair of women, each one making their characteristic sound of aggression. There must have been hundreds of animals, all ready to strike. But it was unlikely that any of them were more ready than the crew's first mate.

## Wolfsbane

"'Eradicate the women', huh. You're pretty confident in your pets, ain't cha?" Wayland rhetorically questioned while coming to a sudden halt, causing the grass to scatter within his wake. Despite the savage words spoken, he was confident in Henrietta's skill to take on whatever was thrown her way and, while he had no clue of her capabilities, there was more to Titania than he realized. Nonetheless, he didn't have to worry about them. "Well, forget about them. It's just you and me right now."

As he stood tall, his red eyes were completely focused on Dare, having no intention of being caught off-guard in the event the wolf-man had anymore tricks up his sleeve. "I don't know why you've made it your personal mission to attack us but it'll be the worst mistake you've ever made, Fido." With a fierce gaze, he dropped his oversized backpack and swiftly pulled out several weapons, concealing them within his jacket before settling on wielding a specific one. It was a black and purple spear, adorned with red and yellow assents. The blades of the spear were light purple, similar to the lightning which commonly struck Raijin Island. It was only befitting that it's name was...

"Stormlight." He declared, stomping his foot while adjusting into a stance befitting of a spearman. holding the spear diagonally with the tip pointed towards the ground, he was crouched low as well, ready to move at any given moment. "**Sei Tekko**!" Moving leagues faster than before, Wayland darted forward and thrusted his spear ahead, applying the principles of *Shigan* into the technique to pierce through his opponent, aiming for the stomach.

Dare's blank eyes glowed, ever so briefly, as Wayland approached him. Since he had joined the Iron Legion he had been modified, and that changed much more than just his physical appearance. His body had been augmented, and his newly enhanced senses were more than capable of keeping track of a fast-moving target, especially when combined with his Kenbunshoku Haki. As the spear was aimed towards his stomach, Dare's arm reached out to grab it just behind the spearhead. Shigan was a fast and powerful attack, but its real power lied at the point, where the attack would connect with the target's body.

"Pets? They aren't my pets!" shouted Dare. "They're my friends!"

His mouth opened wide as a sphere of energy seemed to collect inside of it. With a loud and primal shout, a burst of energy would fly from his mouth, another attack from the Goe Goe no Mi. Despite their appearance, the beams would not burn their target, they were raw, kinetic force. His intent was to hit Wayland with the attack at close range in the chest, sending him flying away before he could continue to press his attack or retreat.

Wayland's eyes widened in surprise at the point-blank attack, watching the kinetic blast heading directly towards his chest. Realizing there was no way to properly dodge in this range, he was resolved to simply take the attack head-on. "*Tekkai*!" Letting out a fierce roar, his body stiffened once again to the point it was steel-like in nature, bolstering his defenses while preventing him from moving. Fortunately, he had reacted just in time as the energy beam slammed directly into Wayland's torso, causing him to unintentionally grunt at the power behind the attack before being flying away until he slammed into a nearby tree as it broke upon impact.

"Damn, that hit like a truck..." Letting out of a huff, he pushed himself off of the tree without much issue as his iron defense held true. However, His mind wasn't really focused on the attack but rather the words Dare had spoken, specifically how the animals were his friends and not pets. "*Maybe I'm reading too much into this but...*" He stared at Dare, focusing his Kenbunshoku Haki on him and couldn't help but frown at the emotions he was sensing. Resentment, hatred, disgust. Most of which were directed towards him but the rest seemed so indiscriminate as though it was lashing out in general. Like a beast, there was some sort of instinct which caused this level of negative emotions in him towards humans. "*...it reminds me of how I used to be, preferring weapons over people.*"

Unfortunately, this wasn't something he needed to focus on. This was the time to focus on the battle at hand. Without hesitating, Wayland stabbed Stormlight into the destroyed tree and lifted the woody plant through his weapon, heaving it into the air before chucking it straight towards the Dare. As the wooden projectile raced forward, he crouched low to the ground and speed off in an explosive burst of speed, hiding within the shadow of the flying tree. Upon nearing the wolfman, Wayland swung his spear in an explosive sweeping motion, seeking to knock his opponent off of his feet with tremendous force.

As the tree flew towards him, Dare's body once again changed. The fur that covered his body stuck up, matted together, and seemed to sharpen. It was all the more exasperated as black covered the follicles as his Haki flowed into them. He leaped, directly towards the tree, his body curled into a ball as he spun through the air. "**Echidna Roll!**" he shouted, his numerous quills shredding through the tree, splitting it in two.

He uncurled himself, above where Wayland would have been. He would have been safe from Wayland's initial follow-up, but with the range of that spear, not necessarily any follow up attacks. Because of the force at which the tree was split, neither half would have put Wayland in danger of being crushed if he were to stay still. The quills of hardened hair seemed to die down, all except for around his hand, where quills made from green energy began to take shape.

"**Porcupine Quill!**" he called. Bringing his arm down, Dare threw a needle-like projectile from his palm, an application of his Advanced Busoshoku Haki, right down towards Wayland to impale him in his upper body. It was proportionate in size to his body in comparison to a real porcupine's quills, making it more akin to a small javelin. And it was just as fast, still possessing the same strength and power of sturdy metals.

Dare's strategy was simple: keep attacking. He could wear him down over time, and prevent him from forming a more coherent strategy if he kept up the pressure. To Dare, Wayland seemed like a more civilized man, one who had learned martial combat and different fighting styles. He would need more time to think of a plan. But that wasn't how Dare fought at all. He was a wild animal, keeping up the assault until his prey could no longer resist.

With keen eyes, Wayland was observant of his surroundings, making sure to keep track of his opponent in the event of surprise situations as his spear cleave through the air. There had been numerous occasions in the past when he had been caught off guard due to not paying attention to certain details regarding his foes. As such, upon noticing Dare had leaped over the thrown tree while curled up in the form of a ball, he immediately came to a halt as the two pieces of the tree crashed into the ground while turning to face where his foe landed.

"*Wait. What the hell is that green energy on his body?*" His eyes narrowed in confusion, having never seen the signs of advanced Busoshoku Haki prior to this encounter. His thought process was interrupted by the needle-like projectile firing out from Dare's palm and rocketing towards him at breakneck speeds, causing him to instinctively trigger his Kenbunshoku Haki. With sharpened senses and a focused mind, Wayland sprung into action as Stormlight was entirely covered within a black hue of willpower before twirling his spear, the very wind around him swirling into a vortex in tandem with his movements.

"**Kurogane Koseki!**" Widening his stance by spreading his feet apart, Wayland leaned forward as he prepared to launch Stormlight with the combination of his own strength and the built-up momentum from constantly spinning his weapon. As soon as the weapon left his grasp, the blackened spear transformed into a blur as it raced through the air and collided with Dare's own Porcupine Quill, forcing each attack into a stalemate as neither was able to win over the other. After what seemed like an eternity, an large explosion occurred as a cloud of smoke detonated in the epicenter of the clash and Stormlight went soaring into the air above.

Leaping into the air with a swift burst of Geppo, Wayland dashed towards his weapon and twisted his body midair to where his foot was aligned with the bottom of the spear. With teeth clenched, he preformed Geppo once again to act as an enhancement for his kick, striking the bottom of his polearm with his steel-toed boot and launching it at Dare with great force as it pierced through the air like a meteor and headed towards Dare who would be blinded by the smoke around him. Even with his enhanced senses, the spear would travel through it and hopefully be masked along the way.

Dare's eyes began to glow red. It wasn't just his five primary senses that had been enhanced, but his sixth one as well. Even through the dust cloud, he could see Wayland move. After all, his spirit was mighty, and his time spent on Gerong Island with Gerongians helped him acclimate to fighting against opponents whose Haki he couldn't even sense. Compared to that, seeing through a dust cloud was child's play.

It wasn't just Wayland's presence that he could sense, but his aura as well. The green energy emanating from Dare's body began to move and condense, collecting around his hand. And from there, a massive paw with equally massive claws appeared. "**Bear Claw!**" he shouted as he swung his claw downwards. A normal bear had the strength in its paws to not only kill a person with a single swipe, but even other predators as large and as powerful as the tiger. Of course, this attack that mimicked the anatomy and powers of the bear was far greater in strength in comparison to the genuine article. His claw met with the Wayland's spear, intending to knock it off course. It was no easy feat, Wayland's craftsmanship was the real deal. He struggled with the weapon just as Wayland had struggled with his Porcupine Quill, but in the end, he managed to smack out towards the sea, traveling so that it would either land on the beach or into the shallow water.

As he began to fall back to the ground, Dare needed to keep his legs free to brace his landing, and the flow of Haki wouldn't be fast enough for him to attack with another ranged attack before Wayland could take out another weapon. Given his speed, he would likely even be able to retrieve his spear. Fortunately, for when he had few options, Dare could fall back onto his Devil Fruit power. He inhaled deeply and fired a blast from his mouth, aiming to send Wayland right back into the ground from which he had just risen.

"Son of a..!" The sight of Stormlight ー a weapon he had worked tirelessly to craft ー being batted aside and sent towards the coastline was enough to invoke a feeling of annoyance and rage within the young blacksmith. While it was possible for him to dash over and retrieve the weapon, it seemed like his opponent wasn't going to give him the opportunity to do such a thing as evident by the blast of concentrated sound energy heading straight for him. With the speed it was traveling, it would reach him within a matter of seconds and blast him out of the sky if he didn't do something.

Fortunately, despite being disarmed of his spear, Wayland still had a number of weapon to use against Dare. With a resounding kick off of the air, he exploded towards the incoming attack as he reached into trenchcoat and pulled out a set of unique swords. Sharing the same shape but different design, they could only best be described as a representation of yin and yang ー the darkness and light within everyone. Their names were respectively...

"Shuko and Kakuryu!" Wayland declared loudly, tightly gripping the twin blades and holding them parallel to one another before suddenly twisting his body. Using Geppo to supplement his movement, he continued to pick up momentum as his body took on the form of a crimson buzzsaw rotating through the air. In the blink of an eye, he soon met the blast of concentrated sound energy as his blades sliced through the blast with ease, continuing down toward Dare at breakneck speed. With the intention to slice through him like an actual buzzsaw, it was evident that Wayland wasn't slowing down for anything as he came down upon Dare.

Dare's eyes widened in shock and rage. Never before had his scream been overpowered in such a way. Wayland not only resisted his attack, but was cutting through it, climbing through the air like some sort of... sky salmon! His blades cutting through the wave like paper. The power of Dare's emitted Haki had not yet been distributed, and once again, his **Bear Claws** hardened to make contact with Wayland's blades.

His muscles bulged as he attempted to overpower the young pirate, yet, even above him, he simply couldn't do it. It made sense, given Wayland's propulsion, but the best Dare could do in this moment was stop him from cutting into his body. And even then, cracked began to appear on bear claws, made from his Haki.

Again, Dare was surprised by the sheer tenacity and power of this boy, this human! It seemed as though he was going to overpower him, that he would overpower him. How could a mere human be so strong? "*I'll have to use it.*" The number of times Dare had used the full power of the gift given to him by the Iron Legion was small, normally he was able to get by on his raw power and naturally cultivated skills, but in this instance, more drastic measures needed to be taken.

Pulsing from his bear claws came something else, not Haki, at least not by itself. It would flow from Dare's body into Wayland's weapons, then into the pirate himself. The energy would be obvious, familiar to anyone that had any experience with thunderstorms; it was electricity. Dare's wolfish form wasn't just for show, his body had been enhanced by the Lineage Factor of Minks, one of the steps taken to rid him of his pesky humanity. And in this instance, he was trying to flow the Mink's Electro into Wayland's body.

"**Electric Eel!**"

As his twin blades were locked against hardened claws, Wayland had very little time to react as his electricity surged throughout his body. His teeth were clenched tightly upon feeling the intense pain from being electrocuted, racking his nerves and muscles. "*Cheetah claws, snake skin, echidna and porcupine, bear claw and now an electric eel! Just what type of creature is this bastard?!*" There was only one explanation for this oddity of abilities in the blacksmith's mind: human-animal experimentation. It would certainly explain the animosity towards humans given that they were the ones who had turned him into a beast as well as his odd abilities.

Nonetheless, he needed to do something before he was fried to his very core by the electricity coursing through him. Using Dare's hardened claws as leverage, Wayland pushed off of them as he was sent back while twisting in the air. As he spun above, he gyrated his body while tensing his arm muscles to build up strength before swinging with everything he had. "**Hamon!**" Wayland roared while the air around him rushed forth as a powerful tornado, tearing up the ground as it headed directly towards Dare swiftly.

"Not done yet..." Landing on the ground with fierce glare etched on his face, the blacksmith twirled his Shuko and Kakuryu before crossing his arms together and taking jettisoning forward as a crimson blur. Following closely behind his Flying Slash Attack, he engulfed his weapons in the familiar black hue of his Busoshoku Haki to strengthen his following attack while using another burst of *Soru* to push him forward into the rushing tornado, effectively being concealed within his own attack. "**Seppa!**" With a loud declaration, he swung the blades in a 'X' motion directly towards Dare's chest.

As Wayland pushed off of Dare, his body remained mostly stiff, still headed towards the ground. However, the force from Wayland's tornado was incredibly swift, as one would expect wind to be. It struck Dare head-on, who barely managed to block it with his still active **Bear Claws**. Even so, the turbine continued to push him backwards. His feet finally touched the ground as he skidded backwards, kicking up sand as he tried to negate the attack.

Although, as he would soon discover, Wayland's assault had not ended there. Through the eye of the storm, Dare could sense him. Charging, preparing to strike. Dare would be able to negate this attack soon, but not before Wayland's own maneuver would slash across his chest. "*So what!*" Dare thought to himself, "*he's merely a human! He uses weapons. I am a weapon!*" Dare's jaw opened widely, the blue energy from within gathering once again. He was preparing to use the Goe Goe no Mi's power, but with a little something extra this time.

There was no time to dodge, not even enough time to intercept Wayland with his attack before the young pirate could slash the animal man. He'd settle for a trade, expecting Wayland to be much worse off in comparison to himself. The blast that was fired from his mouth wasn't pure kinetic force like his blasts from before, but a blue wave of flames. Smoldering, turning the sand beneath them into glass as the roar rocketed forward. Heat makes air rise, so it would likely destabilize Wayland's tornado blast, allowing Dare to fully negate the blast, albeit, not before Wayland left an X-shaped mark on Dare's torso. It would seem as though the wail in pain would only make the blast more powerful, enhanced by the Gerongian Lineage Factor that had been added to his physicality.

"**Ryu no Hoko!**" The attack would be at point blank range, singing the hair off of Wayland, burning his skin, and boiling his fluids. Or at least, that's what would happen to someone without the skill to defend. While it would be difficult to escape completely unscathed from that range, it would not be impossible to reduce some of the damage.

## Nature vs Nurture

The tumultuous roar that revibrated throughout the world from the stampede of the animals would have been enough to send armies into retreat, but, for Henrietta, there was no other option but for her to engage them there; if she did retreat, that not she even could, she’d leave Wayland, and Titania, to the mercy of them, Dare, and his supposed-sniper, who she still had a vague idea of her location. What didn’t help either was Titania’s reluctance. It was obvious she was not used to battle, probably a spoiled noble in some way, but, Henrietta, deep down, didn’t believe that to be a bad quality. She wished more people were afraid of pointless fighting.

“Find some place to hide!” Henrietta called out, taking a step forward. Her hands dropped, shooting out in front of her like a piston, as a rhinoceros of titanic size rammed its horn directly towards her. Her hands gripped the horn of the ferocious beast, her legs sliding centimeters back from the sheer force that it charged, and with a triumphant swing, her arms shot forward, sending it hurling like a ball back towards the stampeding horde of animals.

Jac studied the new developments. Her Captain was squaring off with the brown-haired boy. Meanwhile, the ice wall which had been erected earlier to stop her initial assault was long gone. It was worth knowing that the one who made it could use some kind of frost attack. And was strong too; she threw the charging rhinoceros as if the animal weighed nothing. But it also presented an opportunity.

*If possible, stop the rhinoceros' momentum. If not, avoid. More importantly, encircle the two. I'll pin them down from above.* she called down the telepathic line.

Moments after Jacquotte finished, she begin firing once more, applying a thinner layer of Buso meant to increase piercing power. Just in case that ice wall made a reappearance.

Numerous animals parted like a river around a stone as the rhinoceros fell flat on its back. However, this only perturbed them for but a moment. Numerous monkeys and other small mammals and lizards climbed on top of their fallen comrade. And surrounding Henrietta's person were rams, gorillas, bulls. Strong creatures, although clearly weaker than Henrietta herself. The issue would be if she attempted to take them all on at once. Breaking apart machinery wasn't particularly difficult for creatures such as this. Even so, they made sure to not obstruct Jacquotte's path, so that their first mate had a clear target to hit the pirate. They were just cutting off her escape.

Henrietta’s mind was a vast supercomputer, capable of calculating thousands of scenarios within seconds, seeing infinite possibilities; her mind worked by projecting simulations with very minor alterations. What if she stepped with her right foot instead of her left? What if she moved her left hand instead of her right? Everything was calculated to percentages, and then averaged. It was a feat that only someone imbued with a mechanical mind had the luxury of having, and she, unlike others with that mind, could adapt and evolve. Every book, every circumstance, every thought strengthened her mind, adding cores, increasing her processing speed, her information-recall, her mental capabilities.

In all her scenarios, she succeeded easily, but there was a single scenario that she could never perfectly assess no matter how hard she tried. She gritted her teeth in anguish.

“T-Titania!!” Henrietta yelled, ducking slightly to avoid the bullet that surged through the air, striking the earth with such force that it gave off a resounding clap that revibrated like thunder. The woman earlier had something where she was able to alter the trajectory of the bullets earlier, but she had managed to recede back to her state of perpetual confusion and shock. Henrietta didn’t have time to give her another speech. There was another bullet incoming, and the animals that circled in only left a single option.

She took a step forward, lifting Titania onto her shoulder, before exploding off into the air, propelled by a expunge of fuel from the soles of her feet.

As she took off, her body moved ever so slightly, yet various sensors manifested among her HUD. She zoomed in the air freely like a bird, moving into the upper echelons of the branches, hiding behind massive trees as she placed Titania among a rather dense bush of leaves, before taking off again in a separate direction.

She stopped momentarily onto a branch, but the cracking indicated that she didn’t have much time.

She glanced downwards towards her hip, noticing the bullet that had penetrated her metal flesh ever so slightly. It wasn’t powerful enough to go all the way through her metallic, steel-alloyed body, but it was dense enough to make a noticeable mark, and another in that same spot would probably…

“Shit, I done moved around too much,” Henrietta murmured, lifting her head up. “She’s probably moved too, but, more than that, those animals can surely smell me. They know my location…but, if I stay too unavailable then..”

The branch broke entirely mid thought, sending her plummeting back towards the ground. As she landed, she rolled forward, prepared for the next assault was probably coming her way.

At least she managed one hit; Jac supposed was better than nothing. Still, it was frustrating. The first mate took a breath to steady herself. What had she learned? That the woman could fly of all things. Just what was she to be able to do that?

Jacquotte decided it wasn't important; she had lost visuals on her and the one carried away by the flying woman. Reloading, Jac started moving, nimbly running jumping from tree limb to tree limb while calling out mental commands.

*Those who have her scent start tracking her. Use the surroundings to cut off escape points. Don't engage unless she tries making a break fo-* Her head snapped up at the sharp crack of a breaking tree limb, followed by a far smaller bumping sound.

*Go.* She changed directions, weapon at the ready. Moments later, Jac came to a stop, positioning herself for a clear angle. Next, she activated her Kenbunshoku, one eye closed as the other adjusted like a scope.

"There you are." Another barrage flowed from her rifle.

The various animals made each of their unique calls as they headed back towards the forest. Chief among them was a snow-white, Japanese macaque, the highest-ranking animal in their entire crew, and someone that Henrietta would likely recognize. Yuki relayed the commands, jumping from tree to tree with a squad of monkeys. As the larger animals keep their distance on the ground, the monkeys and other tree dwellers surrounded the engine woman from above. Each one prepared a handful of dung for bombarding their enemy, the brown shit turning to black as they imbued it with Haki. Even animals were capable of developing strong spirits.

It was ironic that they could to, considering that Henrietta outright lacked the ability to use Haki entirely. Her computer brain was an advantage in almost every feasible way, but there was always her inability to comprehend what people called *Spirit*; willpower was not an actual thing. I mean, it was a bunch of synapses, not too dissimilar from emotion, but the ability to push yourself beyond, to do what you wanted, that was just stubbornness, wasn’t it? The inability to adapt was an evolutionary disadvantage by all of Henrietta’s calculations. Even if she wanted to use Haki, which she had tried to do countless times, she could never force it to manifest because of that simple principal. She simply didn’t believe in it.

What she did believe in was her own senses, her algorithms, her calculations, and her strength. She scanned the battlefield, her eyes, mechanical in nature, absorbing the full brute of every projectile that coursed throughout the air, calculating, and deducing the speeds, points of impact, curvature, trajectory; anything that could be physically measured, Henrietta measured it. Therefore, she flipped backwards, and as her feet were pointed towards the sky, she expunged a stream of gas so volatile that she went surging directly into the ground, her hands cuffed and flattened as if she was diving into a pool.

She forced her way through the ground, dozens of feet underneath, dodging the bullets and Haki afflicted dung and bullet. The last bullet gave away, so Henrietta pushed forward underground.

Jacquotte stopped again, picking her way forward through the treetops. The permeation of gas through the space had her issuing more commands for the animals to fall back a bit as she found a better vantage point. Only for the gas to dissipate and reveal a hole of all things. A pretty deep one at that. Did she....plan on tunneling through the earth? Just what was this woman?

"Is she a mole?" Jac questioned aloud. As a test, the first mate fired a couple of shots into the gaping hole, before listening to see if they came into contact with anything. She would be disappointed. "Huh."

She turned her attention to the assembled animals. '*"A portion of you break off and see if you can locate the other woman the transformer was with. Given she was alone when she dug underground, she must have stored her partner relatively close by."*

The animals nodded as their orders came in. A bear, a hippo, two foxes, a boa constrictor, and a wolf peeled off from the main group. It wouldn't take them that long to locate anyone hidden, not only did they have access to Haki, but their senses of smell were some of the most-advanced in the animal kingdom. Those without the great sense of smell were mostly to act as muscle. The remaining animals, however, stood on standby, ready for Henrietta to reappear, or otherwise track her down should they receive that order.

## Monster's Banquet

In the moment that the two began to collide, like a drill, Henrietta shot forward from the earth, positioned directly between the two, grabbing and pulling Wayland away from the werewolf-like man with as much force as she could spare, shooting across the ground with him in her arms like he was an infant.

“Sorry, kiddo!!” Henrietta yelled, twisting her body as she glanced towards Titania. “But we’re running outta juice here! And I can’t afford to keep this one going.”

The woman leapt from the tree, using her infamous ability to locate Wayland to walk across the tree branches towards their location, dropping downright next to them.

Henrietta dropped Wayland.

“Look, we quit. We don’t wanna do this fightin shit no more, so just let us be on our way.”

Dare's lips had curled into a smile, if ever so briefly. He had thought his blast had completely incinerated the human. But just as quickly, he realized that the scent of Wayland had not yet faded, and he turned towards Henrietta as she addressed him. Now he grit his teeth in a scowl, so strong it threatened to crack his own teeth. "You think I'll let you escape so easily! I despise humans! All of them! There's no room for negotiation! Even if you escape me today, you're only prolonging the inevitable! I'll just keep killing and killing until there isn't a single, dirty human left on this planet!"

"A rabid dog until the end, ain't ya." Wayland muttered while picking himself off of the ground, dusting the sand and dirt off of his attire. Looking over at Dare, he sighed before speaking up. "You hate humans that much, huh? You'll slaughter all of 'em, even those who have done nothing to ya?"

"It doesn't matter what they've done to me!" Dare shouted, green energy seemed to surge around him. His Haki was going wild, just like Dare, himself. The animals of his crew were approaching as well, not quite close enough to help, but close enough to see. "Humans took everything from me! Humans take everything from each other!" The ground beneath him seemed to crack as the wind picked up, sending the sand into a whirlwind around him. "Animals only do what they must to survive, but humans do whatever they want just so that they can feel superior! I hate them! The world would be a better place if they were just gone!"

It was as he shouted, flashes of his old life appeared in his mind's eye. What hurt him, what bent him, what broke him. Behind all the sand, wind, and even his own Haki, it would be hard to see, but a single tear dropped from his eye, before being lost in the tempest around him.

Wayland closed his eyes, feeling the waves of emotions which were flowing out of Dare like a raging river. From rage to sorrow and betrayal to disgust, it was all there contained within a single entity. It was clear how deep these feelings were ingrained into the wolfman's very soul, becoming a part of who he was. "You know, there was a time when I didn't like people. In fact, I hated them with every fiber of my soul."

His mind flashed back to the rainy streets of Loguetown, walking in search of something to eat. However, he had only managed to find one thing: weapons. "My only compainions were the discard tools of old, weapons no longer desired. I could hear them and learn from 'em." Wayland explained, twirling his twin blades for emphasis. "But one day, I meet someone who changed my views. He took me in, raised me as his own and showed me love in his own way. It was nice but I didn't think I'd ever met someone like that again until I came across a number of people."

The Buster Pirates. There was something about them which made Wayland want to have them stay by his side, being the reason why he had gone on this journey to find and gather them back together. Of course, Henrietta stood out amongst the entire group, causing emotions to swell up within him he hadn't experienced before. Marisa had shown him loyalty and bravery far beyond what he had expected from a mere stranger and he wanted to repay that ten times over.

"Those people I've met who I can put my faith in are worth to me than any weapon I could forge." He admitted softly. "Tell me, would you want to kill that sniper friend of yours despite her nature as a human?"

"What are you talking about?" Dare snarled, "of course I-" he cut himself off, his eyes widening at a sudden realization; he wouldn't kill her. Even if she was kind to animals like him, even if she held the Hiso Hiso no Mi, he would've rather killed her than use her as an asset if he truly wanted all of humanity dead. Even as he went from island to island, killing every human he could find, even before his transformation, his plan was to end his own life as soon as all others were dead. Yet, it never once crossed his mind to kill Jacquotte too. She was more to him than merely an asset, she was a friend. And if he felt that way about a single human then...

"*Mommy! Daddy!*" The memories swirled through his mind, "*I'm sorry! Whatever I did, I'm sorry! Please! Don't make me go with them!*"

Wayland smiled upon seeing the hesistance in Dare's eye, having realized the conclusion he must have come to. It must have shaken him to his very core, knowing his dream was now in-conflict with his bonds. "You can't even imagine having to do it, can ya? That human, who's been by your side through thick and thin, means just as much to you as the kinship you feel with the animals here and that brings out something in you long forgotten." Crossing his arms, he briefly looked towards Henrietta before adjusting his gaze back to Dare.

"There are those who deserve your hatred and fury, I won't deny that. It would be hypocrital of me to say otherwise," The blacksmith continued, narrowing his eyes. "But you'll lose yourself at this point and the bonds you forged with your own hands. Is that something you really want?"

"No!" Dare shouted, "No! No! No!" He began stomping the ground like a child having a tantrum. He began gripping his head, a migraine striking him that felt like it was going to tear his head apart. "No! Humans are the enemy!" His Haki continued to swirl around him like a tempest, but it also began to falter, as if his will was no longer fully invested in his mission.

"The entire human race is the enemy? Sorry but I refuse to believe that." Wayland retorted, uneffected by the sight of Dare's tantrum nor the erratic display of his Haki. "Humanity is filled with scumbags, nobody will deny that but how far are you wiling to go for that? Are you willing to become exactly like the monsters who unleashed the same harm onto you?"

Dare's irises reappeared in his blank eyes. He had always seen himself as a means to an end, the one that would eradicate the vile human race, but now, had he truly become worse than the vile beings he despised? It only made sense, he was one of them.

Everything quieted itself at once. Dare's green aura dispersed, the sand fell back to the ground, and even Dare's wolfish features began to fade. Standing before Wayland and Henrietta was no longer a monster, but merely a man, tears streaming down his face. There was something that he had blocked from his memory, a minor detail, all to justify his quest for vengeance and carnage, when his parents gave him away, there were tears in their eyes.

He dropped to his knees, bowing his head. It wasn't just his poor treatment and enslavement that made him desire the extinction of the human race, it was something inside of him as well. A deep loathing, not towards his own kind, but himself. He had thought that that hatred was because of the race he despised, but if didn't hate Jacquotte, his friend, a human, then how could he hate his entire species? So, he asked for the one thing he'd actually desired all these years.

"Kill me," he said, "just get it over with."

"What?" Wayland said owishly, looking at Dare with a confused expression on his face. For a mopment, he could feel a brief surge of rage flow through his body before squashing it to prevent himself from doing something he might regret. "What did you just say?"

Dare didn't say a single thing, he simply stayed on his knees. The tears had stopped flowing, although his face was still wet. All that bravado, that rage, that energy, it had been evaporated in a single second. The user of Goe Goe no Mi made not a sound, although the stampede of his crew was rather close to their position.

“If we never experience the chill of a dark winter, it is very unlikely that we’ll ever cherish the warmth of a bright summer’s day,” Henrietta interjected, vocalizing for the first time since Dare and Wayland engaged one another. “Nothing stimulates our appetite for the simple joys of life more than the starvation caused by sadness or desperation. To complete our amazing life journey successfully, it is vital that we turn each dark tear into a pearl of wisdom and find the blessing in every curse.”

At that moment, the back of her shirt burst open with two enormous white wings emerging from them like a swan.

“It seems that you were turned into a monster for power too, by the people you trusted most…”

Henrietta glanced up at the sky.

“Perhaps it’ll be important for you to see them again. Maybe…it helped me understand. Home. It’s not a place, it’s a person, most of the time.”

She grabbed onto Titania and Wayland’s arms, the engines within her wings beginning to spin.

“Don’t die here. Go rediscover yourself. Something tells me you’re not as much of a monster as I am.”

With that, her engines exploded, the jets powered by a reddish fuel that launched them skyward with the fanfare of a shooting star.

Dare stayed on his knees, blanking staring out into the ocean as he watched the pirates leave. At this point, his stampede finally caught up with him. Yuki ran out in front of him, frantically speaking in sign language, but Dare's expression was blank. He couldn't hear the monkey's grunts nor see the associated signs. It was like he was a husk of the being he once was.

Jacquotte emerged a few minutes later, the group with her following suit. Among the first to arrive was the small squad she had sent to track down Titania, albeit unsuccessfully. A deafening silence weighed on the space as the new arrivals stopped moving.

Only to be broken as Jac dropped to the ground. She walked to her listless captain, concern increasing as she saw him ignoring an increasingly frantic Yuki.

"Dare." No response. "Dare!" Still nothing. This was a problem.

The moment she reached him, she shook him vigorously, in an attempt to move him from this forlorn state. "DARE. What are you doing?! They're getting away!" What happened during the time they were separated?

Dare let out a massive sigh, coming ever so slightly out of the stupor he was in. "It's over..." he said, "it's all over."

"What? What do you mean it's all over?" she responded. Something told her it had nothing to do with the now distant trio. Jac laid her gun down, before taking a seat on the sand. Various animals followed suit, recognizing that continued fighting or pursuit was off the table. Others returned to the island's interior, Jac relaying a message that things appeared to be done.

She turned back to a still flagging Dare. "Talk to me."

"When things are said and done..." Dare begun, "...and all the other humans have been eradicated... where would that leave you?"

Jac's words died on her lips. Where would that leave her? "On the chopping block." She knew Dare was serious about eradicating humans, which meant no exceptions; not even first mates.

"And you'd be following right after I suppose."

"That's just it though..." Dare said, "I thought about ending my life so many times, it just seemed like the logical conclusion to my crusade... but I didn't think of killing you once."

Jac's brow furrowed in confusion. He never thought about killing her? Did it have to do with how he found her? Or was it the nature of her devil fruit? Had she done something to not be considered human? More questions stirred around her mind as she voiced only one.

"Why?"

"Because, Jac," said Dare, "you're my friend. I love you." He said it like it was the most normal thing in the world, like it was incredibly obvious. It would be clear from his tone that, while the word he said was "love", it was not love in a romantic sense, simply the care that one from has for another.

But it wasn't, at least for Jacquotte; her stunned expression said as much. She was well-acquainted with Dare's hostility towards humans, how this hatred was a volcano just waiting to erupt. She returned to the same set of questions; what made her different? Was she more attuned? More palatable?

No, maybe she was overthinking it: joining someone on a crusade, fully aware of where it was headed, but committed anyway. Was a sister or brother-in-arms able to make the transition to friends? Probably.

"Huh," Jac managed finally.

"So what now?"

"That is the question..." Dare's voice began to trail off, "what now?"

## Home, Sweet Home

Henrietta’s initial takeoff was fast, calculated, explosive, and almost vertigo inducing, but since then she had slowed down to what appeared to be a steady, comfortable pace as she traversed higher into the atmosphere. She hadn’t said much of a word since the reveal of her massive wings, not that she intended to; there wasn’t much to be said about the matter. She had wings outfitted rocket-propulsion engine systems that allowed her to sustain flight. It wasn’t anything different from what she had already demonstrated that she could do.

But her speed was different. She slowed her pace not because she necessarily had too. In fact, since channeling her ion-engines imbued within her wings, she could sustain the pace that she had traveled at indefinitely with very little energy cost. Instead, she did it because of the environment of the upper atmosphere. She had no actual need to inhale and exhale for sustenance because of her unique composition, but the air would thin the further they went upwards, and the colder it would get. By her calculations, they were already into the negatives in terms of temperature, which was why she kept exuding heat from her engines to at least shield Wayland and Titania from the frigid conditions that were to come.

She continued along her trajectory.

“We’ll be there soon,” Henrietta finally spoke after nearly an hour of silence. “When we get there though, you have to let me do all the talking. It’s exceedingly important.”

"Yeah, sure." Wayland replied slowly in a dismissive manner, being focused on taking deep breathes as they rised higher in altitude. In honesty, he was quite confused by how difficult it was for him to breath considering he didn't have the issue last time he had risen this high. "*Then again, I was pretty amped up and focused on fighting those winged people.*" His mind rationalized, inhailing deeply through his nose before exhaling once more. In a less stressful situation like this, his body was simply reacting as it should have to the higher altitude.

Unfortunate but his body was accustomed to the air below. It would take time for him to get used to this.

"Wait, where exactly are you taking us?" Wayland questioned, finally realizing what Henrietta had been talking about. "The only thing up here are those racist sky people and as far as I know, they don't take to kindly to people from below."

“That’s exactly why you should let ***me*** do all the talking, Wayland,” Henrietta replied. “Wait…racist sky folk?”

Her brain almost lagged as it struggled to properly process Wayland’s sentence. “You’ve been to the Clear Sea before?”

Shrugging his shoulders the best he could given his position, he answered. "Yeah, it was a couple of months back. I encountered a Marine who ended being one of sky people, ended up steaing the weapons of someone who really helped me out a lot." Recalling Marisa and the sheer amount of willpower she displayed throughout their adventure, a smile spread across his lips. "I was indebted to her given how she went out of her way to protect me, even if it seemed like it was at the cost of her own life. We managed to soar up there and we might have...gotten in a skirmish with some of them before destroying that marine's house."

For a moment, he shivered recalling how he had nearly been frozen to death if it hadn't been for Marisa's insane body heat. "In our defense, she was a huge bitch."

For a moment, Henrietta’s body temperature flared up, her pores exuding a spark of smoke that came from the sudden spike in heat.

Henrietta didn’t turn her head. She kept looking forward towards the sky, her eyes scanning and navigating ahead for obstacles.

“So, you came here with a *she* before, Wayland?”

"Um..." Despite the warmth coming from Henrietta, Wayland could feel his body break out into a cold sweat as his mind told him he had somehow said the wrong thing. All he was doing was informing her what happened, it wasn't his fault regarding the events which transpired. "Yeah, her name was Marisa. She was a member of the Hunting Pirates if I recall correctly."

“Oh, you even remember the *bitch’s* name, huh?!” Henrietta called out, turning her head slightly so that her eyes could scan Wayland. Her sensors had the ability to detect a bunch of things, muscular composition, weight, height, temperature, but it was never able to read emotions. She looked at Wayland’s face. “And what were you doing with *Marisa,* Wayland?”

"Uh..." Wayland stuttered upon hearing the harsh tone used, feeling as though he had somehow messed up despite only explaining what had happened. He was unsure why Henrietta felt the need to insult Marisa nor why she was so upset with him for having been with her. "Well, like I said, we mainly just fought against the marine who attacked us and retrived the weapons which were stolen from her." He elected to omit the Vire Card he was given after their adventure, knowing it would deeply upset her even further.

She sped up unintentionally, completely distracted by Wayland at this point. “You’ve already said that Wayland. That’s not my question!!!”

Her already red eyes began to glow a lighter red-hue. “Why. Were. You. With. Her. In. The. First. Place?”

Wayland stiffened upon hearing the primal emotion coming from his partner, feeling something deep within him screaming that he had made the situation worse. "Well, she came across me while I was on the island mining for materials for weapons! Ya know Brave Vesperia, the sword which shoots out a pillar of light that I swing around! It was made on that island!" He explained in a somewhat desperate tone. "Anyways, she came accross me and told me the villagers had sent her to take care of a pirate aka me in exchange for an alliance with her crew!"

By this point, Henrietta’s eyes were glued to Wayland’s face, as her scanners looked to inspect every aspect of his physical being. Her face was the same glow as her eyes and steamed poured from her ears in a ferocious frenzy like an overworked locomotive. “Y-You’re telling me the bitch put her hands on you, Wayland? And you ain’t say shit?!”

Her features softened ever so slightly. “I thought we were better than that!”

Wayland's eyes narrowed in frustration and confusion, feeling his emotions swell up. "We are better than that, Henrietta. That's why I am here and why you were the first person I searched for. I wanted to find *you* over everyone." He paused for a moment, his checks flushing red in embrassement.

"Marisa is someone I have a lot of respect for but that's all it is. She did a lot to save me despite being a stranger and I can't help but want to be like that for you and those I care about, okay?"

“Wayland,” Henrietta murmured. “Okay, okay. You’re right, I’m-“

“Hoy!” Titania interrupted. “I hate to interrupt, whatever you call *this*,” she gestured with a noticeable glint of annoyance in her tone, “but what the hell are those up there?!!”

Henrietta followed her finger, noticing the plethora of humanoid-esque beings, bearing tremendous wings, armed with spears and other weaponry.

“Skymen,” Henrietta answered. “They’re skymen.”

The skymen sat perched on small pieces of sky islands scattered throughout the area, seemingly forming a parameter around a larger mass of land.

“They’re border patrol. They guard all points of entry into the clear sea, the place I’m headed. They hate humans, like Wayland said earlier,” Henrietta continued. “But, they’re fiercely loyal to one of their own. Let me do all the talking, okay?”

She turned back towards Wayland. “Er…we’re not done either, you know.”

Within seconds, the engines within her wings began to slow as they prepared for her to land, serving to let her glide to her place. Like a parachute, they simply fell onto the mass of land, landing as gracefully as they could.

She dropped Wayland and Titania behind her.

“Hoy there,” she said.

"Huh, I definetely wasn't expecting to see another member of our tribe when the others noticed that speck in the distance." One of the border patrol exclaimed curiously, examining Henrietta before narrowing his eyes fell upon seeing the human duo who were picking themselves off of the ground. However, I don't regonize who you are and there is the fact..." With swift thrust, he pointed his spear towards Wayland as disgust filled his voice. "...you've brought a pair of wingless to our home as well. What is exactly going on here?"

"This guy better get his shitty crafted toothpick out of my face before I use it to make him *wingless*." Wayland muttered in a hushed tone, already disliking the individual before him.

Henrietta’s red eyes fell onto the member of her tribe. “Woah there, relax buddy,” she replied, gently placing her hand over his spear. “They’re with me. I brought them up here with me. We have some important interaction in Haven, and they’re some premier investors, you know?”

She smiled. “My name is Ford Henrietta,” she continued, pausing as if that had meant something. The confusion of the patrol agent revealed that he didn’t have much to say. “A few decades ago, I was a **Warrior**, you know, one of those children that got sent to assassinate Satsuka.”

She pushed the spear down a little further, guiding the point to the ground. “I fell to the blue Sea, and I’ve been running operations out of their ever since for the benefit of my people. The usual stuff..”

One of the patrol workers looked on in confusion. "Wait, assassinate who?"

"Shut it! It's above all of your paygrade!" The patrol agent roared, causing the entire squad to stiffen and stand at attention. Letting out a deep breath, he locked eyes with Henrietta. "A **warrior**, eh? I thought most of you had perished long ago in that mission of yours. Considering very little know about that, I'm inclined to believe you."

Glancing over at Wayland and Titania, he narrowed his eyes at them. "I'll give ya clearance but keep any eye on them. I'm sure you don't need help in taking them down if you managed to survive that against damn monster."

"I'm going to kick his ass." Wayland hissed, moving to grab a weapon from within his coat.

Henrietta moved her hand to the back of Wayland's head, the thunderous clap indication that her blow had made contact. "Thanks. I'll be sure to put in a good word for you. What's your name and rank, sir?"

"Ah, that would be quite nice..." The Sky Tribe member muttered before coughing into his fist, answering aloud. "Ahem! Very well, I am Captain Javan!"

Henrietta nodded and smiled. “Gotcha, Captain! Pleasure meeting ya—”

She turned back towards Wayland and Titania. “C’mere you both. We got business to take care of, eh?”

Grabbing them with both hands, Henrietta’s turbines spun into action within her wings, launching them further into the stratosphere.

*FIN~*