A Storm in the Sky

**Date Started:** 05. 13. 2023
**Date Completed:** May 28th, 2023
**Previous Role-Play:** N/A
**Next Role-Play:** N/A
**Users Involved:** User:Haraxmant, User:Black Dwarf Star
**Setting:** 1582, An Unknown Sky Island
* **Pirates**: Marquise Angele, Whiger, Squire
* **Bounty Hunter**: Barbuta

## Downtrodden

*Splash, Splash, Splash*

Angele's footsteps fell heavy against the ground, splashing against pools of rain collecting on the ground. She wasn't used to these Sky Islands, and it was quite surprising to her that they had weather systems even up here. But, she couldn't think about that now, she was running from something, running for something, for her life. She leapt over a downed tree, landing harshly on the other side, she would feel fatigue if it weren't for the pure adrenaline running through her.

Trailing behind was Barbuta, he chuckled as he just followed the trail she left. He knew she had no practically way off the island, she was like a cornered animal, which was ironic, all things considered. Though, he wasn't dragging his feet, he knew someone else hunted his prey.

With the lightning flashes and storms going on in the Sky Island, it wouldn't be very difficult for one to get lost, or at least not see what direction they were headed in. Angele wouldn't discover this until it was too late, running headfirst into a mountain of a man.

Despite his white fur contrasting greatly with the black Sea Clouds, it was only a flash of lightning that revealed his presence before the young woman. The tiger Mink would turn and snarl towards her, electricity seeming to jump around his fur, almost like he was the one generating the storm in the clouds. He looked down at her, a beast staring down its prey, and spoke...

"Who the hell are you?" he shouted over the sound of thunder, "you looking to challenge me? Cause I can oblige that!"

A young boy, a human boy, with dark skin peeked out from behind the white tiger Mink, blinking in surprise at the woman before him. "I'm not sure she wants to fight, Master Whiger," he said, "she looks scared stiff!"

The tiger Mink groaned. "Nobody here wants to fight. And the people that do are so weak! I'm telling you Squire, this is why we're headed back to the New World. Nothing in Paradise but a bunch of weaklings! Even in the sky!"

Angele stepped back, her eyes practically rotating in spirals as she bumped into the large tiger. "ooo-oooo..." she groaned, shaking it out of her head and looking at the man "A fight?..I actually know someone looking for a fight! He's right back there, chasing me!" she shouted. In the distance, the growing sound of heavy footsteps grew louder.

"I never caught his name, but he's this bulky armadillo fella, I bet he'd be more than worth a challenge for someone of your calibur." she complimented, making grabby-hand motions while talking about his build. After all this tiger man, while the same size as her, they weren't small by any means, her own height a byproduct of her lineage, this tiger however was very large for a Mink.

"Strong, you say?" said Whiger. He grabbed Angele by the face and moved her out of the way. He sniffed the air. Yep, it smelled like an armadillo alright. An armadillo Mink to be more precise. He was quite familiar with the scents of his own kind. "Alright, I'll give this one a shot. Squire! Give me a weapon!"

"Yes Master Whiger," said Squire. He held out his hand and a portal opened up beside him. Whiger reached inside, pulling out a rather large and heavy, black war hammer. "Oh yeah, this one will do nicely."

Angele's eyes narrowed, she had no clue who this tiger man was, but if he could slow the armadillo down for her, she could easily make her escape. For now, she waited however, to ensure the encounter be made.

Just then, Barbuta made his way through the trees, a bolt or lightning cracking through the sky as his eyes met with Whiger's. "Where were you hiding this one?" he asked, stepping forward. "I don't recognize you, are you one of the weak ones? No bounty?" he continued, giving a hearty laugh. "Stay out of my way, tiger." he said finally.

"Oo, a confident one!" said Whiger, licking his lips as he began to growl. A smile had etched its way onto his mouth. "Come at me! This might actually be fun!" He held his hammer aloft, a bolt of lightning suddenly striking it, as if the weapon itself had called it down. But rather than Whiger finding himself electrocuted by the bolt, the electricity seemed to coil around the weapon, as if it had caught the lightning to empower it. "The one you're looking for is right behind me," Whiger continued, "but you'll have to beat me to get to..." he looked at Angele for a moment, sniffing the air. Despite his many travels, he still wasn't exactly able to discern the genders of humans based off of appearance. "...her! It's a her! You'll have to go through me!"

Barbuta chuckled, holding out an open hand as a handcuff and chain dropped from his palm, sprouting from it directly. he spun the cuff by it's chain at high speeds before tossing it forward at the Tiger, the other end of the chain leaving his palm with a second cuff, the pair of cuffs spinning through the air like a set of bolas. Meanwhile, Angele stepped backwards, taking a few slow steps before turning into a full sprint away from the men, and back toward the forest.

Whiger wasn't quite expecting a ranged attack from one as big and bulky as the armadillo, even if he was a few feet shorter than the tiger Mink, himself. But when someone fought from a range, that didn't make things any more difficult for him to fight. After all, he was supposed to be the ultimate warrior. And despite his bloodthirstiness, that didn't mean he was unable to see certain things coming.

He pointed his hammer towards the incoming attack and a discharge of electricity, the charge he had built up in the hammer, was suddenly dispersed, hitting the handcuffs. The electricity seemed to surround them, trapping them in midair under the power of electromagnetism and sapping away all of their forward momentum. Whiger's grin only seemed to get wider.

"I always let my challengers attempt to strike first," said Whiger. "Now then, time for me to strike back!"

The fur on Whiger's body stood on end as electricity seemed to course through it. And in an instant, a mere flash of lightning, he had moved, faster than the eye could see. All Mink's were natural born warriors, but Whiger took that to the extreme. Combat was his life, so he made sure that all of his physical parameters were superior to that of anyone that dared face him in the future. He aimed his war hammer, a two-handed grip, towards Barbuta's side. It was like a golfer hitting a ball with their club, driving it down the field as far as possible. And that level of power was certainly behind Whiger's strike. Even if his "ball" was an armadillo Mink.

As Angele tried to sneak away, she would feel a slight tug on his sleeve. "Where are you going?" said Squire, "don't you want to see Master Whiger's fight?"

Angele rolled her eyes "Not really, kid. I'm just trying to survive out here. She said, yanking her arm away from Squire and rushing off, her arms turned into blades as she chopped at a trunk, running by and downing an entire tree behind her path, anything to slow them down from following her.

Barbuta jumped into the air, curling into a ball to prepare for the strike, and it made contact just as expected, like a golfer, however Barbuta still managed to shift his weight while flying through the air, bouncing from and downing many trees in the area, as his speed finally began to slow, he uncurled, his feet and hands grasping at the ground to slow him to a stop. He seemed almost unphased by the attack, his hard outer shell protecting him from most, if not, all of the damage.

He thrust his hand to the ground before sprouting barbed wire along the ground in a cone in front of him, covering the battlefield between them in the spiked wires. **"Yard Time"** he spoke low before smirking up to Whiger. He clapped his hands together, sprouting two metal poles, connected by a small amount of metal fencing. **"Chain Link"** he spoke again, before forcing the poles apart, giving himself two makeshift steel batons.

Squire sighed as Angele began to run away. But with Whiger distracted, there wasn't anything that he could really do to stop her. At least, until he saw that she had turned her arm into a blade. A weapon... a Devil Fruit power... she was a weapon! Squire chased after her, holding out his hand. A portal then appeared in front of the fleeing woman, producing a sort of suction to force her through the portal. Squire had eaten the Don Don no Mi, which allowed him to store weapons in a pocket dimension. And as far as he was concerned, a woman that was a living sword qualified.

Meanwhile, Whiger was fully engrossed in his fight. Whiger's hammer weighed a few hundred pounds, yet the armadillo wasn't hindered at all. This battle was looking to be even more fun than he thought. He jumped into the air, avoiding the wire that was covering the ground, remaining airborne as he jumped in the air. It seemed as though he was jumping off of the electricity, almost as if it was solid. With all the electricity going on around them from the storm, Whiger felt completely at home. After all, his primarily ability was the ability to manipulate it.

"**Kaminari!**" Whiger called out, the name of the martial art he had learned and self-taught. It had taken him some time to develop it, traveling the world and starting to learn, but never mastering any particular fighting style. Even so, the basic information was enough to help him learn how to make electricity bend to will. And as he called to it, numerous bolts struck his person. He was calling it to him. But even then, Whiger's movements were faster than lighting. For each bolt that came towards him, a movement of his hands smacked one of the bolts towards the armadillo. Five bolts of nature's wrath headed towards the armadillo without losing any speed, aiming to strike Barbuta in his sizable chest.

Angele was caught off-guard by the sudden portal opening before her, she would try to stop but it was far too short a distance to manage "Oh fu-" was all she could let out before the portal swallowed up behind her.

Barbuta struck up a bit of lightning of his own, sending it through the barbed wire on the ground, he was utilizing his electro to charge all of the wire in the area. One, two, three, and even number four. Four of the incoming bolts were subverted, connecting charges with the electro-induced barbed wire, the connecting arcs making the incoming lightning be grounded, but the fifth, however. The fifth bolt was not subverted, it struck true to Barbuta, as he was unable to keep pace with Whiger.

Barbuta flew backwards from the hit, even his resistance from his mastery of electro wasn't enough to downplay powerful lightning, he growled before rolling into a ball, spinning fast along the ground before rushing forward, it was practically a full speed roll-out, he was able to easily roll over even the barbed wire, shifting in his ball, he made it bounce from the ground, becoming a high-speeding bullet aimed right for Whiger.

More electricity gathered around Whiger's war hammer as Barbuta planned his counterattack. Lightning struck the weapon, supercharging as it had been before. But now, the armadillo Mink would get to learn what it felt like to be on the received end of a direct strike with the weapon, as opposed to the simple electromagnetism he had performed before. Whiger brought the hammer over his head and brought it down directly onto Barbuta. The electricity discharged into his body, all at once. It would be stunning, almost paralyzing, and incredibly hot. Not to mention, the amount of force that Whiger had put into the strike to begin with. It would be like going over a vector point; all of the kinetic energy that Barbuta had built up had suddenly switched from one direction directly into the ground, which would send him hurtling towards it in the blink of an eye. And the entire time, Whiger would be wearing the same battle-hungry expression on his face.

The electricity surrounded Barbuta's shell, before the hammer itself slammed him into the ground, making a crater in the dirt and mud, unrolling from his shell, Barbuta rubbed his head. He seemed unaffected by the hit, but the recoil of it left him a bit stunned. "Damn, alright. I'll leave the girl alone...." he complained. "But you can't blame me for trying, I'm a bounty hunter, it's what I do." he explained.

He tried to shift his body weight, but failed to pull himself from the hole that his shell and back were now stuck in. "Shit..." he said, before looking up to Whiger. "You could at least pull me out, you know?" he asked.

Whiger seemed to step down the electricity he generated like a flight of stairs, eventually stopping beside Barbuta. "Oh, I don't care about the girl," said Whiger, "I just wanted a fight, but it seems as though you don't have the warrior's spirit I'm looking for either." He grabbed Barbuta by the chest, pulling him in close in order to drag his tongue across his face. It wasn't a sloppy kiss or anything like that, but a method he used to mark those he had defeated. A tiger's tongue was covered in papillae which they used to strip the meat from bones. It wouldn't cause heavy damage, but the marking would be inescapable for a while.

"Squire! Where'd that woman run off to?"

"I've got her right here, Master Whiger!" A portal opened up and out fell Angele, completely unharmed.

"There you go," said Whiger, "now let's get out of here." Whiger dropped Barbuta and began walking away, Squire quickly running up next to him, smiling as the duo left.

Angele fell, directly into the mud, lifting her head up with a scowl, she turned it to Whiger "What...the HELL...was that!?" she shotued, pushing herself to her feet before looking to the man with her hands on her hips. "You didn't even finish him off! What kinda protector are you anyway? You can't just wa-" she was quickly hit in the back of the head by Barbuta.

"She has a point..." He spoke up. "That was all, very uncalled for..." he said, slapping a pair of handcuffs on Angele, before she would then shrink down into a hole on Barbuta's hand. Angele was now, nowhere to be seen. "What's all this warrior business, Mr....Did I even get your name?" he asked. "Whats a legend without a name?" he continued.

Whiger turned back around and sneered. "I never claimed to be protector. Only a warrior, one who fights for the thrill of it and no other reason. And you can call me Whiger, the Stripeless Tiger." He turned back around and continued walking with Squire.

The young boy almost seemed to have stars in his eyes as he looked up to him. "He's so cool!" he squeed.

Barbuta rubbed his face, the entire interaction was strange, who the hell was that guy, really? Just some tiger kind, wanting to fight people for no reason. It didn't sit well. On top of that, what was he doing here, were these his hunting grounds? Thinking of, Barbuta had finished his hunt as well, given the aid of Whiger. He rolled his eyes, that man seemed to have no interest in the capture, he might as well just leave. So he did, heading in the opposite direction of Whiger.