Chapter 89: Frankenstein's Doctor and the Abduction

Chapter 93:

Frankenstein's Doctor and The Abduction

Chopper wiggled in the cage, a gag in his mouth preventing him from screaming. Steel-like spider silk held him fast, stopping the Zoan from transforming lest the restraints become too tight and he pop like a balloon. He glared at the Warlord in the room, Moria completely unaffected by the anger. The reindeer had been in this same situation since the spider-mice had kidnapped him from behind his friends' backs about five minutes prior, but Moria had yet to say a word. The only sounds that broke the heavy silence were the screeching of bats, Chopper's shifting, and the occasional "kiiishishi" cackle from Moria.

"It's ready, Master!" a trio of voices called, three small zombies running in with a wide coffin in their hands. They lowered it to the ground with a thump before the grinning Warlord and rushed over to a spotlight on the other side of the room.

Moria reached down, lifting the lid from the coffin. Inside was the still corpse of Dr. Hogback, his clothing cleaned of blood and the cut in his neck sewn shut. The body had since gone pale to starkly contrast with his dark clothing and the new tattoo on the side of the neck, S-Z 947.

"Even in death, you will find a way to serve me well, Hogback!" Moria exclaimed, moving the coffin to the side and reaching toward his prisoner. The lights in the room seemed to dim as the man opened the cage and pulled the struggling doctor from within. Chopper's eyes had gone wide with fear and, though try as he might, he could not escape the Warlord's large hand. With a cackle, Moria hung Chopper on a hook so that his hooves were just touching the floor. A spotlight flipped on behind the reindeer to reveal his defined shadow on the floor. "And now our mad doctor shall return anew!" Moria cried.

The shadow-man reached forward, delicately pinching the terrified Straw Hat's shadow before pulling it from the floor like velcro. Chopper swung forward, his feet still desperately clinging to the dark mass as the Warlord lifted a pair of giant scissors from a nearby table.

"No, wait!" Chopper cried, his struggling finally loosening the gag enough that he managed to spit it out. "Please don't do this!"

"Oh?" Moria questioned, choosing to answer. "Whyever not, Dr. Chopper?"

"This... This is wrong! The dead shouldn't come back to life! Let them rest in peace!"

"Kiiishishishi! But the dead are far easier to control than the living! You should rejoice, Dr. Chopper! Your shadow will be one of the most useful I've ever acquired!" The scissors drew closer.

"No! Plea-!"

SNIP! The sound of the scissors closing echoed around the room. The reindeer's eyes rolled into the back of his head, Chopper's limp form swinging on the hook to rock back and forth. His shadow wiggled, now free of the binding of the body, shifting between all seven of the Zoan's forms. Even so, Moria's hand was too big for it to escape. He brought the dark form up closer to his face.

"Kiiishishishi!" he laughed. "Forget your humanity and forget your former identity! I am your new master! Accept this contract and obey my command!" Chopper's Heavy Point shadow nodded slowly. Without preamble, Moria's hand swung down, slapping the shadow against the body of the late Dr. Hogback which rippled as it absorbed its new soul.

TH-THUMP

Hogback jerked as his heart beat once, his mouth opening to gasp air to give to his starved lungs. The corpse rose slowly, shaky limbs reaching out to pull the body from its container. Stepping out, Hogback's zombie kneeled before the Warlord.

"Hogback," Moria smirked. "It's good to have you back, Doctor."

"Even if you acknowledge me as a doctor," Hogback muttered, suddenly dancing with wavy arms, "that doesn't mean you'll get on my good side, you bastard~!"

"Uh, right," Moria muttered, confused. "Whatever. Hogback, head back to your lab and make sure you remember everything. I don't need any failed bodies like your first few attempts."

"Right away!" Hogback dashed off on all fours with more energy than the Warlord had ever seen him with while alive, Moria staring at his retreating form. He shook his head and directed his attention at the small trio of zombies.

"You three, take Dr. Chopper here back to the Straw Hats' ship."

"Yes, Master Moria!" The trio rushed forward, pulling the reindeer from the hook in the middle of the room and running off through the doorway.

"This area looks familiar, right?" Nami asked, the now-trio exiting a hallway and coming into what looked to be an entrance with a fancy staircase.

"I don't know!" Usopp answered. "This whole mansion looks the same on the inside!"

"We're getting closer to the Sunny," Merry announced. "I can feel her now."

"Is the Sunny a her?" Usopp questioned, trying to keep his mind off of Chopper lest he break down and have a panic attack. "I know you said he/she would have to decide, but is a week enough time?"

"In all honesty," Merry responded, "the Sunny doesn't really have a consciousness yet. That would probably take at least a month or so to form and several months before they could form a physical body like I did. I haven't even gotten whispers from the Sunny, so it's still up in the air. I'm just using 'her' because it's easier and that's what Captain Luffy said to do."

"Makes sense," Nami agreed. "And heaven knows we need more women on our crew."

"I disagree!" Usopp declared. "All of the women on our crew are scary!"

"Even Grace and Merry?" the navigator questioned.

"Yes! Grace can make you do whatever she wants with her paints and Merry has her hammer," -The fairy gripped said hammer tightly, a smirk on her face.- "as well as bits of everyone's personalities and fighting styles. So, yes. They're scary, too!"

"Well look at this," a voice purred. "My bride has returned to me." Somewhere to the right, a man faded into view. He was tall, standing half-a-head taller than Usopp, with wavy blond hair that came past his shoulders. He was dressed in dark clothing including navy pants, shirt, and boots all complemented by a matching open trench coat that brushed the top of his boots. He had a large, round hat that sat upon his head colored blue and white, but his most prominent feature was the cat's maw that was stitched onto his face, whiskers and all. Two beady eyes narrowed at Usopp and Merry as if warning them not to get in the way.

Merry, however, had different ideas.

"You're the pervert from the baths!" she exclaimed, pulling out her hammer and leveling it at the man. "I still owe you an ass-kicking for throwing me into a pillar!"

"Merry!" Usopp cried. "Language!"

"You will not keep me from my bride, little girl," the cat-man literally growled. His head turned, eyes locking with Nami's. "My name is Absalom. Do not forget, for that is the name of your future husband."

"For the last time," Nami spat, "I'm already married."

"And I don't care," Absalom waved off. "I've already decided. I'll give you one last chance to join me of your own free will."

"Like Hell I'll join you!" Nami declared, she and her companions pulling out their weapons. Absalom sighed and began to disappear.

"Oh no you don't!" Usopp began. "Gunpowder Star!" The pellet hit the floor with a mighty explosion, but the man had turned invisible and moved to dodge. Without Chopper, the pirates had no way to track the man. They closed ranks, falling in back-to-back on the stairs while the man's growling continued to fill the air.

"Zombie Generals!" Absalom barked from somewhere to the left. "Get in here!" A pair of double doors at the top of the stairs opened to admit the strangest collection of beings that any of the pirates had ever seen, and that was saying something for the Straw Hat crew. All of the zombies had gray skin, but that was were the similarities stopped. The number of arms they had ranged from two to four, their heights were between four and ten feet, and they wielded weapons of all shapes and sizes from swords and axes to guns.

Two zombies stepped out from the rest of the pack. The first was the corpse of a man that had black hair and a small mustache, missing teeth, nails stabbed through its skull, and some sort of plastic duck head protruding from the top of its head. It was dressed in a yellow shirt reading "your song", a brown tutu (for whatever reason), bandages around its head and legs, and had three swords strapped at the hip with a red-and-black hakama. An 850 was tattooed on the left side of the zombie's collarbone. The second zombie was the pigeon-headed one from before.

"Scars on the back are the shame of a swordsman," the first rasped in a gravelly voice, "but... I've got scars everywhere."

"Coo," Gin's zombie added. "Coo! Coo!"

Merry glanced at Nami and Usopp. "Zoro's shadow?"

"Zoro's shadow," they nodded. The zombie drew one sword.

"36 Caliber Phoenix!"

"Evasive maneuvers!" Merry yelled. She, Nami, and Usopp dove in different directions, leaving only the stairs to take the flying slash. With a coo, Gin's zombie charged at Merry, forcing the girl to jump back to avoid the steel tonfa that smashed the floor where she had been standing. Acting quickly, Merry landed on her feet and launched herself toward the undead hybrid.

"Battering Ram!" the fairy announced as her horns made contact with the creature's chest, sending the zombie tumbling down the flight of stairs. Merry had no such problems, flipping with all of Luffy's agility to land on the stairway with a crouch. The hybrid with the lightning-man's shadow cooed in pain at the bottom of the stairs, rubbing its feathered head. "You might have his shadow, but you aren't near as strong as the real Gin." Merry charged with a smirk.

Meanwhile, Usopp had found his own opponent in the form of a four-armed zombie wielding a pistol in each hand. Firing Lead Star after Lead Star, the sniper tried to keep up with the firing rate of the undead while simultaneously dodging both bullets and flying slashes. Rolling under a third 36 Caliber Phoenix, Usopp came up in a crouching position with Kabuto primed and aimed at the four-armed undead.

"Take this! Firebird Star!" A bird of flame erupted from the slingshot's pouch, flying through the air toward the mass of undead. The zombies seemed to fear the fire despite their strength and backed out of the attack's path. A zombie that had to have been made from the corpse of a half-Giant with an impressive beard jumped into the flaming projectile, a large, pink umbrella swinging up to dissipate the firebird into nothing like magic.

"No fair!" Usopp whined. "Ganging up is cheating!"

"Why do we care?" the bigger zombie rumbled. "Our orders er' jus' ta distract ya." It paused. "I prolly shouldn't'a said that. I should not o' said that."

"Distract?" Usopp questioned before his eyes widened. "Nami!"

"Let go of me!" Nami's voice yelled from the other side of the room. Absalom stood behind Nami, his hands holding her fast and her Perfect Clima-Tact on the ground at his feet. A number of zombies paralyzed and twitching behind them. She flailed her legs, but the man held her firm.

"As much as a fiery woman like you turns me on," the man began, his breath tickling her ear, "I can't have you struggling." Bringing one hand up quickly, he struck the navigator on the head hard enough to knock her unconscious. Nami slumped as both she and the man began to fade out of the visible spectrum. "My wedding will be in half an hour!" Absalom told the Zombie Generals as he disappeared. "I expect you all to be there!"

"Yes, Master Absalom!"

"Coo!"

The different response drew Usopp's attention to where he found Merry trying to hold back a tonfa with both hands on her wooden hammer. Gin's zombie had its free tonfa raised over its head to strike while the fairy couldn't defend, but Absalom's declaration had shifted its focus. Merry took advantage of the undead hybrid's distraction, spinning around to throw off its balance and jumping into a spinning roundhouse kick. In a bastardized version of Sanji's fighting style, she executed her own rendition of his Three-Point Carve by kicking the pigeon-man-zombie in the face with her right leg, dropped into a handstand to thrust upwards into the zombie's beak with her left, and finally jumped back to lunge into the monster's gut with her horns.

"Three-Mast Galleon!" she named the combination. Her opponent staggered back, dropping its weapons to grasp at its stomach while cooing in pain.

"Come on, Merry!" Usopp yelled, running by and scooping up the klabautermann into his hands. "We can't beat them all!"

"But-!"

"No buts! We'll go back to the Sunny and plan from there!" Merry stared back at the zombies as her honorary uncle retreated with her in hand, said uncle bending down to grab Nami's weapon as they passed. The undead made no move to follow; their orders had been to distract them so Absalom could get away with Nami. They'd succeeded.

Merry growled. "Damn it!"

"Language!"

"There she is!" Usopp cried excitedly as he and Merry, who was riding on his shoulders, came through the arch dividing the dock and the tunnel into the island. The Cerberus that had chased them on their first trip into the island was still and lifeless in the tunnel, but that hadn't been their doing. Still, it was gone and that was all that mattered to the sniper. The Wood Fairy hadn't been as excited; she'd wanted to fight it, dammit!

"Ow! Would you look at that? Our super sniper and fairy have come back!" Usopp's eyes snapped up, landing on their waving shipwright on the deck of the brig sloop. Usopp and Merry waved back as they hurried to the Sunny. Upon boarding, however, they were greeted with the sight of wooden bits and random articles scattered over the lawn deck.

"Yohohoho!" Brook laughed as they boarded. "Welcome back!"

"Ahhhh!" Usopp screeched, scrabbling to get away from the talking skeleton. Merry hopped off his shoulders, causing him to lose his balance and fall. "What the heck are you doing here?!"

"Your friends here invited me onboard because I know how to purify the zombies," Brook answered.

"Purify?" Usopp parroted.

"You're the one that killed that Cerberus!" Merry realized. "I wanted to fight it!"

"Yohoho! My apologies, Merry-san, but it was in our way and tried to stop us. Even then, it was already cut in half."

"We only got back a minute ago," Franky cut in, "but as you can see, I think the zombies have super beaten us here."

"I checked the storage," Amy announced. "They took all of our food save for cheese and saltines. They took our money, too."

"The crackers make sense with the fact that salt is their weakness," Robin thought aloud, "but why leave the cheese?"

"Oh, that's easy," Brook answered. "Everyone on Thriller Bark knows Moria detests cheese."

"...Right," Usopp muttered. "Anyway, do you all know where the others are?"

"They should be on the ship somewhere," Franky responded, "but we-"

"Found them," Robin cut in, opening her eyes and uncrossing her arms. "They're in the dining room."

"Then what are we doing standing around here?" Merry asked.

"I guess we're waiting for Luffy, Nami, Chopper, and Grace," Amy replied. "Coby too, I suppose," she added as an afterthought.

"Yeah," Usopp chuckled awkwardly. "About that."

"What happened to Nami and Chopper?" Franky questioned, a brow arched. "They were with you, weren't they?"

"Chopper was kidnapped right behind us and Mrs. Nami was taken by an invisible cat-man pervert that wants to marry her," the klabautermann answered with a scowl. "I tried to hit him, but a wall of zombies got in the way."

"When did my life get so weird?" Amy lamented. "All I wanted to do was make great chocolate, but noooo. I just had to end up in an evil organization that gave me and my bomb-man partner the task of killing a group of pirates on a dinosaur-infested island where two Giants were fighting a century-long honor duel to the death before joining the pirates to protect my little sister. And now, here I am, on a creepy ghost island in the middle of the Florian Triangle, fighting zombies and hoping my shadow doesn't get stolen. And apparently there's a crazy, invisible, perverted cat-man trying to marry my rubber-man captain's weather-controlling wife."

"Woah woah woah!" Franky called, crossing his arms in an X. "What's this about a super dinosaur-infested island?"

"Wow," Usopp blinked. "Life for us on the Grand Line is weirder than I thought. I mean, that's leaving out the parts where we saved a princess and her country, went to a different dimension to rescue some kids and steal gold, flew to Heaven and toppled their tyrannical government, partied with the angels, fell into an impenetrable Marine stronghold with an sky-octopus balloon, fought a lazy man made of ice who is apparently one of the strongest men in the world, and then declared war on the world itself before being saved by a living ship who is now a little girl with horns that calls me uncle." He shrugged. "I guess we just got use to the weird."

"Yohoho!" Brook laughed. "You people certainly have some amazing stories!"

"I like history as much as the next archeologist," Robin put in, "but I do believe we're burning moonlight standing around talking."

"Robin's right," Amy agreed. "We'll talk about how weird our lives are after we've kick the ass of the shadow-man with his army of undead."

Still glancing at each other from the oddness of it all, the group of six made their way to the dinning room. Inside were Gin, Sanji, Zoro, and Chopper, each of whom had their faces stretched with wooden clothesline pins and chopsticks and their hair, if it was long enough, stylized with ribbons of all colors. Of the four of them, only Sanji still had his shadow, and that was due to it passing on his chivalry and perverted nature to his now-purified dog-penguin zombie. All of them were unconscious or sleeping.

"So do we just wake them up or what?" Franky asked. "I mean, we could punch them."

"You will not be punching Chopper," Robin stated sternly.

"Besides," Amy piped up, "I doubt a single punch from anyone other than an angry Nami could wake up any of these morons." She gestured to the humans. "Seriously, from what I've heard, Zoro slept through a blizzard while napping on deck. And that was right after them getting to the Grand Line."

"I've got a sure-fire way to wake them up!" Usopp announced. "Everyone ready? You may want to step back."

Confused but intrigued, the other five did so. Usopp sucked in a breath.

"Don Krieg's beautiful master swordswoman discovered the cure to all diseases!"

"Don Krieg?" Gin scowled.

"Beautiful?" Sanji muttered.

"Master swordswoman?" Zoro questioned.

"Cure to all diseases?" Chopper gasped.

"What the Hell?" Franky cried. "That shouldn't have worked!"

"Moving on from that," Amy waved off, "who wants to tell Luffy that there's some creepy pervert trying to marry his wife?"

"Not it!" Usopp, Franky, and Merry yelled in sync.

"Someone is trying to marry Nami-Swan?!"

"I might as well," Robin shrugged, pulling out her den-den.

BUDUP-BUDUP-BUDUP... BUDUP-BUDUP-BUDUP... BUDUP-BUDUP-BUDUP... CA-LICK

"Hello?" Luffy asked through the snail. "What's up, guys?"

"Hello, Captain," Robin greeted. "I have some news for you that you may want to know."

End of Chapter 93

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-SwordOfTheGods