Race

"Come on, I needed those enhancements to be done three hours ago!" Kid barked. "Heat, why are you slacking, I told you to finish the repairs on the rocket thrusters!"

Ever since Gasparde's comment about honoring the King pirates, Kid had gone to extremes to do just that. He was not only planning on winning, but he was planning on winning in a most Rex-like fashion. By sinking and looting all the other competitors.

Rex had had a good chuckle at this, but vowed not to come up from the brig unless there were lives on the line. This left the strategy of the race squarely in Kid's hands.

"Hawkins, run me through the route again." Kid says, wanting to make sure he'd prepared everything.

"Well, first, we go up the mountain and ride down the rapids with all the other ships. If you want to attack other pirates, that would be the best opportunity. After that, there are the spiked rapids, the Sea King's Spiral and the devil's drop before we reach the destination, No Man's Island."

Kid grins at each of the many obstacles.

"Are you sure you don't want to use the Borsalino modification in this race?" Hawkins asks. "It could be an extremely valuable tool."

"While I have full confidence in my work, there are still more than a few bugs with that modification. We could end up all drowning at the bottom of the sea if it doesn't work out." Kid says, shaking his head. "Besides, Rex said it should only be used in case of emergency."

After all, it was a well-known fact that this island was occupied by pirates. The only reason the marines never raided it was there was only one safe route onto or off of the island which was guarded by Gasparde's fleet. The remaining waters of the island had rapidly changing currents and spiked rocks.

The Sea King's Spiral was another challenge, being a massive whirlpool just off of the calm belt, but Kid had calculated that he could use that whirlpool for a massive speed boost.

As for the devil's drop, everyone had to go there, and it was essentially a miniature reverse mountain with no stream to lead down. After you shot up, your fate was in the hands of the devil.

"Hey Kid, are you sure we need to enter this contest?" Bonney asks. "I mean, with our wealth, a couple hundred million Berries doesn't seem worth it."

Kid shakes his head. "This isn't about money. It's about pride. Both my pride in my ship and in my pirate group. We'll beat them all on principle!"

Eventually, the wind starts to pick up.

"Hawkins, move us into position."

The ride up to the top of the mountain is slow and agonizing along the way, Kid and the King Pirates get several death glares from many pirate groups. While Kid was known to be strong by himself, he was a devil fruit user. As such, the pirates figured as long as his ship was sunk, he was done for.

Eventually, a large, steam-powered marine vessel rushes up beside the King Gucci, a massive, grinning marine figure standing upon it.

"So, it seems the might King pirates can't even command their own destiny. Instead, they rely on the wind to blow their way." Gasparde says with a chuckle, he had always been extremely proud of his steam ship. "It's pathetic!"

"The captain says that wind is the embodiment of freedom. Besides, that fancy engine of yours is just ballast if I shoot out your turbine."

Gasparde grunts, before urging his men to shovel more coal into the ship.

Soon, all the ships have made it to the top of the mountain. At the summit, Kid gives a nod to Tiger, before turning to the race before him.

"Let the Dead End Race… BEGIN!"

Immediately, the current reverses, causing the ships to plummet downwards. Kid curses as he and Gasparde are sent down two different streams, but grins as he sees that there are dozens of other pirates in his stream.

"Hawkins, prepare for boost!" Kid roars, reading his plan.

Hawkins nods, grabbing the rudder with both hands. Beside him are three other strong helmsmen, ready to make extremely sharp turns if need be.

Grabbing massive amounts of metal from the town, Kid forms a massive ramp dead ahead of the ship, with Hawkins laying down straw on it as a mat.

"Blast off!"

Boom! In a burst of speed, the King Gucci shoots ahead of other contestants, flying off straight to the mouth of the gulf. The metal ramp is quickly disassembled to form two large, metal winds that allow the King Gucci to ride the waves.

The greedy pirates who had been eying the ship with lustful eyes curse, seeing their golden opportunity flying away from them. Gasparde grunts in acknowledgement, seeing that the King Gucci was indeed a fine vessel. He would need to… 'appropriate' it for himself.

However, contrary to expectations, the King Gucci doesn't fly all that far. Reaching to the mouth of the gulf, Kid drops the ship on a massive bale of straw, turning around to the rear to face the coming pirates. A massive wall of metal and straw is then formed, blocking the mouth of the gulf completely like a dam.

"He couldn't seriously be planning…" Gasparde muttered.

"Cannons, READY!" Kid shouted, with over a dozen cannons being lined up under the deck at the rear of the ship.

Kid then lies down on his stomach, parallel with the cannons staring at the coming ship. He clenches his jaw as a massive purple aura radiates out from him, to accelerate the cannonballs.

"FIRE!"

Boom!

Gasparde blinks and the cannonballs have already slammed into their first targets, punching clean through a single ship and going through to a second. Their power is immense, destroying the ships like they were paper sailboats.

"No, no, show mercy!" One of the captains cries out, his ruined ship rushing right towards the King pirates.

Then, Kid quotes a phrase Rex would often tell him. "We're pirates. From the moment we hung up the Jolly Roger, we acknowledge two things. The first is a quest for freedom. The second, is that we may die at any point along that quest."

Then the ships are crushed one by one by Kid's giant mechanical hands. A few rogue pirates leap onto the King Gucci trying to take it for their own purposes, but Bonney, Killer and Sugar make quick work of them.

Eventually, there is a graveyard of ships standing before the King Gucci. Kid uses his ability to pull up the treasure chests and weapons before turning to the sea in front of him.

"Move out."

Like that, the King Gucci sails out, leaving behind it the ruins of several ships.

Meanwhile, in the brig, Smoothie frowns at the sounds she hears.

"You're very different you two." Smoothie says simply.

"Of course, who wants a first mate who agrees with everything you say is boring. I doubt Katakuri always agrees with your mother. While he may never admit it, no one who don's the King's mantle will follow another blindly."

Smoothie frowns, but she can't help but acknowledge Rex was right. Ever since Katakuri awoke Conqueror's Haki, he had always held strong opinions that superseded his loyalty to Big Mom. Even before that.

"You're not implying that Kid has…"

"Oh I know for a fact that he does." Rex interrupts Smoothie. "I'm not sure about anyone else, but I'm rather confident Kid will awaken the ability, possibly Tiger or Killer as well. Just call an instinct."

Smoothie shakes her head. Rex seemed to be looking down on the rarity of the so-called King's qualification.

Above deck however, there is quite a bit of panic as the ship lurches back and forth, weaving between spikes. A heavy mist covers the spiked rapids, making it nigh-impossible to see the spikes until they are right in front of the ships.

While Killer's haki give some warning, it wasn't enough. If Rex was there, he would be more than sufficient, but that wasn't much of a test.

Kid had taken action against the rapids, fortifying the sides of the ship with metal. Still he can't help but grimace at the screeching noises his ship makes.

"Kid, I feel another ship coming up off the port side." Monet says, her eyes closed as she is surrounded in snowflakes.

This was an ability Monet had developed under Rex's urging called Diamond Dust. It sent out a mist of small snowflakes to create a sensory net where Monet could feel out her surroundings. Because of Diamond Dust, Monet was on track to learning observation haki before Kid could.

"How big is the ship?" Kid asks, wondering if he should send a few officers alone, or navigate the full King Gucci.

"Rather large." Monet explains. "By its size, I would wager it belongs to the Pipi Pirates."

Kid smiles. "Well, you heard the woman, hard to port Hawkins. We have some Pipi's to rob!"

The robbing of the Pipi pirates goes off without a hitch and with Diamond Dust, the King Pirates are able to rob about a dozen other ships with ease. Kid grins at the loot he's gained while Rex sheds a tear in pride.

"Captain, there're two more ships at the edge of my vision, I sense that they are going through the Sea King's Spiral… together." Monet says with a frown.

"An alliance? How odd?" Kid says. "Move towards them but keep our distance. If the ships are fighting, maybe we can pull off a… what did captain call it. Atlantis stalks Grenada unaware of the Oreos behind?"

Rex smacks his forehead at Kid's completely botched quote of the famous Chinese proverbs, but he finds his tactics to be sound. Meanwhile, Smoothie tries to decode the quote as if it were real.

The King Gucci then pulls into the Spiral, seeing the reason for its name. In the center of the massive whirlpool dozens of Sea Kings, each the size of an ancient giant or bigger lash out. The creatures seem to be trapped inside of the whirlpool, trying to grab out at one of the two ships for food.

"Monet, where is this ship, in your imagination!?" Bonney cries out, the wind and rain blinding her completely.

"No, it's over there!" Monet shouts, pointing out to two, barely distinguishable ships in the distance.

Most of the King Pirates frown, not being able to distinguish anything, but Killer and Rex can tell who it is.

"That's the Solar Wind!" Killer roars out. "As for who's attacking them, it looks to be the Gasparde's Salamander ship!"

Kid grinned, this was too perfect. He would get to show up that blue bastard and he would get to kill Gasparde.

"Well, what are you waiting for? MOVE IN!" Kid shouts, getting in position to jump ship.

Meanwhile, on the Salamander, a fatigued Jinbe and Tiger are being looked down on by a gloating Gasparde. In terms of strength, Gasparde is inferior to Strawberry, but his devil fruit made it impossible for the two fishmen to beat him.

All their water attacks did to Gasparde was to make his syrup more liquid allowing him to be even more permeable. After all, moving water had no effect on Devil Fruit users, unless the duo could throw him overboard, it was useless.

"Amemememe!" Gasparde laughs. "So this is the famous Fisher Tiger who set fire to the famed city of Mary Geoise. I know a lot of people who would pay millions for your corpse. A few would pay billions for you alive."

Tiger grimaces at Gasparde's implication, redoubling his attacks. Still, without armament haki, all this was meaningless.

"Sticky Prison!" Gasparde shouts, launching his green syrup all over the fatigued fishmen. The syrup quickly hardens, locking them in place. "Now, I suppose there's no need for the rest of your crew to make it out alive. Needless, arrange for the ship to fir-"

Bang!

A metal object flying in from behind sends Gasparde flying forward. As instantaneous as his transformation might be, Gasparde couldn't defend against an attack he couldn't see.

"Who!?" Gaspard cries out, leaping to his feet to see Kid, Killer and Bonney leaping onto his ship.

"Killer, you deal with sword face. I've got candyland and Bonney help our fishy friends get free." Kid barks out, rushing towards Gasparde.

"Oh, I am going to enjoy this!" Gasparde cries out, rushing towards Kid his body shifting into green syrup. Spikes jut of his arm as he thrusts them at Kid.

At first, Kid seems to be on the defensive, throwing metallic objects at Gasparde's spikes to break them. Gasparde frowns, this seemed off.

Then, Gasparde condenses a massive, green candy arm and faces Kid. "Let's see that Mecha Fist you're so proud of brat!"

Clang!

Gasparde widens his eyes as he and Kid collide head on, feeling a pain in his wrist. He looks at Kid's fist only to see a faint translucent glow around it.

"Im-impossible, you can't have learned armam-"

Bang!

Kid punches Gasparde straight across his stammering jaw, sending the former Marine flying.

"First rule of the King Pirates. Keep your guard up!" Kid says, ending his sentence with a right hook into Gasparde's ribs.

"Second rule, never miss leg day!" Kid roundhouse kicks Gasparde in the face, slamming him down onto the ground.

"Third rule. Every pirate's gotta be aware that each day they set out could be their last!" Kid says, crushing Gasparde's head beneath his foot. "Looks like your winning streak's up, buddy."

After that, the crew cleans up the left over pirates and reaps their rewards. Gasparde's ship is an impressive vessel, being only slightly smaller than the King Gucci and steam powered.

Kid scraps it for parts taking the steam engine and the weapons as well as one, very important part.

"Wow, I'm impressed." Rex says as he sees the Blugori installing the new part. "I didn't think Gasparde would be high-ranking enough to have a sea stone coating under his ship."

Indeed, the part Kid had salvaged was the famous sea stone coating under the ships of some rear admirals and most vice admirals. The coating that allowed them to sail through the calm belt without being attacked by sea kings.

"Gasparde stole it from the Vice Admiral he served under." Kid says, having found Gasparde's journal. "The vice admiral was a Devil Fruit user, so Gasparde used sea stone to weaken him, then threw him overboard and stole the ship."

Rex sighs, no wonder Gasparde's bounty was rather low for a pseudo-logia. After all, Gasparde was invincible to most marines under Vice Admiral. The marines didn't want to reveal that he had killed a vice admiral, so they kept his bounty low to solve it 'in-house'.

"By the way, did you find it?" Rex asks, turning to several crew men that had been searching the ships.

"Yes, captain, we found it." A crewman says, handing Rex a green, rock candy looking fruit.

It was Gasparde's Devil Fruit.

While it was hard to control Devil Fruit reincarnation on an island, due to their being so many fruits for the Devil Fruit to reincarnate in, in the middle of the sea, there weren't many options. As such, when Gasparde died, Rex had sent out his crew to find the fruit.

Now there was only the matter of what to do with it. Rex didn't really care for the fruit that much and figured he would just bump it off to a junior officer.

While the fruit was a pseudo-Logia, it had a lot of weaknesses. For one, hardened candy was extremely brittle. For another, sugar syrup was flammable, it hardens when cooled, can be neutralized with flour, there were just so many weaknesses to the intangibility. Still, the fruit would make a half-decent officer.

"Kid, do you want to do the honors? You're still acting captain until the next island."

Kid grinned and nodded his head. "Hawkins, resume course, destination, Reaper Island!"