The Madman Part 10

The Madman Part 10

\____-o(X)o-____/​

'… man, this has got to look horrible.' I thought with subdued amusement as I walked through the town in the morning. Y'know, with an arm slung under my own.

Mind you, it was a fake arm, and rather obviously so, but still, I could understand them being rather iffy around me. More than a few people shied away from me a bit subtly as I walked down the street.

But considering that with my coat done up I practically looked like a fucking member of Organization XIII who favored brown over black, a sword at my hip, and a discolored, seemingly skinned arm that I was carrying… well, couldn't blame them for being iffy about me.

The heavy rains pattered lightly against the heavy leather, fuckin monsoons. It was almost hilariously hot now, but I'd gotten used to the wet, muggy heat in my past life. I'd grown up in the hot and humid heat of… well… Florida, and it was often similar out here on the ocean in this life.

Honestly, I fucking loved weather like this, more so than I did blazing sun. I'd have preferred a little lighter on the rain rather than this downpour, but still, clouds over sun any day of the week.

There was a little hum from my collar, and I glanced down at the hummingbird hiding in the shadow of my raised hood, "What?"

It hummed at me, getting some affirmative noises from the other hummingbirds were in my hood.

The town wasn't as busy as it'd been the last time we'd been here, but that could easily be because Shaka's army wasn't here celebrating its victory.

"I legit have no idea what you just said." I noted to the little bird, slipping past a small cluster of people hurrying through the streets.

The hummingbird pecked my cheek and then pointed with its beak past my hood.

Turning so I could follow the look and– … and what the hell was that…?

I paused, looking at the large red, steaming bull…? Bull I guess going down the street with a rider atop what looked to be a scaly leather saddle. The bull's hair was waving and going upwards, it was a bright red color with its mane a dynamic orange and yellow color…

Curious, I walked over, "Excuse me…?"

The rider was a young man in the usual grass skirt people on this island wore, though he had a good sized umbrella leaf plant with the roots around his head to keep himself dry even as the rain steamed off of the bull. The rider looked down at me, "Yes?"

"What species is your mount? I don't recognize it." I asked pretty up front, "Or is he a mutant of sorts?"

"Mutant?!" He bellowed, "My grand beast? He is no mutant! He is a majestic and rare Fire Buffalo!"

"Tcheh," I couldn't help but grin, looking back to the buffalo, "Of course. I've never heard of them, just water buffalos."

"Hah! My mighty steed is no mere water buffalo! He is a grand and dangerous beast that I have tamed myself!"

A quick glance at my collar showed some hummingbirds rolling their little eyes, giving me a good idea that he was talking shit. Tcheh, still. Reaching out, I held a hand out towards the buffalo's face, palm upwards, the beast shying backwards some, "He doesn't seem too dangerous…"

"Be careful," this was a little less boisterous, so I paid it a bit more attention, "He is scorching hot, were it not for my special saddle I could not ride him."

Curious, the fire buffalo eased forward, the rain falling on its fur evaporating quickly even as it snuffled my hand. I, "He's not that bad…" while he was hot, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as Molto, though I don't think I'd want to ride him, only my hands were truly heat resistant without deliberate Armament Haki. Grinning a bit, I ran my hand along the buffalo's snout as he approached a bit closer, sniffing my chest now, "He's just a big softy isn't he?"

"… ah… he's… a bit of a coward usually…" the young man admitted, while he might've been older than me in this life, I'd put the odds of it at maybe 50/50.

"Tcheheheh, he's adorable…" much in the way of a pug, the buffalo was so ugly he was cute, though he reminded me of what you'd get if you combined a Torchic with a water buffalo and then slapped Shaka's symbol on its ass.

… at least he apparently didn't need to worry about dying if his tail-fire went out like Charmander would've.

"Ah… thank… you…?" the man said, and I had a feeling he'd noticed the artificial arm in the crook of my elbow.

So I smiled, patting the side of the buffalo's head gently, making a mental note to look up the local fauna later, because a 'fire buffalo' seemed rather interesting, was it just operating off of a higher body temperature like a bat or was it something different? "Thank you for satisfying my curiosity."

"Ah…" the young man blinked before planting his hands on his hips, the umbrella leaf plant bobbing on his head, the roots almost losing their grip as he over compensated, booming out, "You are quite welcome!"

Rolling my eyes with a smile, I slipped away from the pair, making my way towards the smithery once more, looking to my collar as rain pitter-pattered against my hood, "Was that what you wanted?"

"MmMm! MMmmHmHmHmMmm!"

"… we have got to sit down and either figure out a way for you to talk or teach me your language."

-oOo-​

The door to the smithery was open once more, and I slipped inside quietly, sweeping my hood back off with a relieved sound before unzipping my coat. The middle-aged man who'd originally owned the place was working with an apprentice at the entryway anvil. Neither of them were looking at me, and the place tended to leave the door open because of the sweltering heat inside. I knocked on the doorframe, "Yo."

The blacksmith looked up, his eyes narrowing at me without recognition for just a moment before I raised the artificial hand to wave with it, "Could you give me a hand finding Io?"

What? Tell me you wouldn't make that joke.

The blacksmith scowled, "You."

I grinned just a bit, the hummingbirds fluttering out of the dry confines of my coat to land in various places and dart about, "Me."

It took a second, but the middle aged black man scowled and jerked his thumb back at the main area of the smithery. I gave a little nod and headed past them to the work area, my eyes scanning for the tall woman. She wasn't in the first area with the anvils and presses and forges, in which various apprentices and journeymen were hammering out weapons of various kinds. I was mostly ignored outside of a few furtive glances. She wasn't near the first area… tucking the artificial arm back beneath my own, I moved through the place towards the smeltery– Ah, there she is.

I grinned just a bit as I both listened and watched the tall woman yell at an apprentice about the coal they were shoveling into the smeltery. Her hand was on her hip and she was in her normal pants, boots, gloves and apron.

"Oi," I said loudly over the noise of the flames and the clanging of hammers behind me, getting an almost angry turn from Io.

"What-?" she paused, and I could see the realization come across her face, first confusion, and then pleased surprise, "Ah! Florida."

Unable to help myself, I raised the artificial hand into a wave, "Need a hand?"

The tall woman snorted after just a second, giving a shake of her head before turning back over her shoulder, "You! Get back to shoveling!"

"Y-Yes ma'am!"

She turned back to me with a small smile, but her eyes were locked on the artificial arm in my hand, "Is that it?"

I held up the artificial arm, all black musculature with some white elastic-based tendons and basic steel bones, ignoring the little hummingbirds that insisted on landing on it, "A prototype. I'm going to be picking up some seastone to make better bones for it as well as create a synthetic skin so it's at least a little less gruesome." I held it out for her, letting her take it with her hand and slowly turn it over, "This is more a proof of concept as well as a test of the interface with your stump."

"But it works…" she said softly.

"That's what we're gonna test," I said with a grin, "And even if it works perfectly, I don't recommend using it for long, it's not crazy strong and its bones are merely steel, they'd probably melt under the stresses you usually put your hands through."

There was… wonder in her face, wonder and hope… and my heart surged happily at that. It was so much better to be the source of that sort of expression than fear. After a second she looked 'up' at my mere five foot six ass, "What do I need to do?"

I smiled and pulled a vial of sterilized water as well as the softly glowing green vitae from my utility belt, holding them up, "We're gonna test the connectors right now, got to make a small incision in your stump and hook up the nerves to the wiring of the arm to make sure you can use it."

My skills with medicine were still barely beyond first aid levels, for the actual integration and hook up I was gonna be roping Akira into the surgery. But I knew enough to do this. The vitae would help ensure that there was no infection and that the incision would heal quickly. The substance has effects on living things a bit different than I was expecting, while it enabled the reanimation of dead tissue within certain tolerances, it only moderately accelerated the healing of other things and didn't enable stuff like regeneration as far as my experiments with fish could determine.

Io nodded, no fear at all at the thought. At least compared to getting a replacement arm. She paused though, "Wait… you can get seastone…?"

"Eeeeyup." I'd be seriously surprised if I wasn't able to harvest it through my diving suit the way I had before, I was a bit curious as well as dreading what it'd be like to touch it now that I had an Ability.

After a moment, her honey colored eyes met mine, "… I would like to work with that if you can bring me some…"

I gave a little shrug as I smiled, "Sure."

-oOo-​

I walked back towards the Cake at the docks. It'd been a lil' nasty cutting open Io's stump to find the nerve endings and attach the wires to the clusters of motor neurons. But I'd stopped being squeamish years ago. It'd taken some fiddling to find the appropriate nerve clusters and I'd noted them down for future reference just in case, but things had gone pretty smoothly all considered. Really missed my old reference books though.

The arm hadn't been sealed against her stump, we'd left the arm on the table in her home as I'd worked, connected by the wires between them. Still, she'd really wanted to keep the arm to understand it better, and I had enough musculature to make a whole 'nother arm. Though I'd made her promise not to try to use it since it'd only be about a week before I had the final product.

The streets were busier than they were this morning when I'd left the Cake. It was still raining like all fuck, but practically everyone had umbrella leaf plants atop their heads.

It was pretty efficient really… I wonder if they were cultivated or natural here… they didn't seem to be the same species that I've seen elsewhere… see if I can pick them up for later. Though there were a good number of zebras and buffalo and other pack animals moving about this afternoon, either being led or ridden about.

I didn't really need anything personally right now, I already had all the tools I needed to work seastone with, mostly just raw physicality and Armament Haki, though I'd use a glove to avoid touching it even obliquely. Lucca had fully taken up the bullet manufacturing for the Bonney Pirates, though I still made the primers, mercury fulminate was a bit hazardous to make. I had a distinct advantage of practice as well as, now, the ability to turn into metal. I'd figured out the process initially using the diving suit I'd made, but seriously, being metal made mercury poisoning a laugh.

Turning a corner, the docks came into view and I smiled just a bit, the crew was mostly out and about on the docks, having half taken them over.

Tarps were set up to keep things dry, and a number of stalls had been set up since we expected to spend a few days selling off the meat we weren't keeping. Both to justify the time expense as well as to pay for other, non-meat foods. There were advantages to having a lot of older crew members though, there was a fair bit of sales talent amongst the crew.

"Get your McPuffin meat! A once in a lifetime opportunity!"

Claude was actually quite good at the sales pitch, and the rest of the crew was mostly moving the cargo about. The rest were just milling about or making sales. Wallace had a look of fierce determination on his face, so someone had probably said he was afraid of boxes or something silly like that.

Daniel as well as a few of the others of the crew were milling about in the crowd of people in the docks. It wasn't the thickest crowd, but it was loud because of the business going on. Some of the Bonney Pirates had the umbrella leaf plants atop their heads, while others had gone with really wide brimmed hats, and I myself just used my hood.

There was a whoop from a cluster of the crew who were getting an early start on the drinking, and one of the derps raised a gun into the air and fired it. There didn't seem to be anything serious happening though–

**Incoming–!**

I jerked to the side, my jacket flaring out as I dodged a steaming mass of flaming colors! That's the fire buffalo and rider from earlier today! The rider was clinging tightly to the buffalo, barely holding on and almost silent in his fear. The actual noise of the buffalo was covered by the sounds of the docks and the crowd, its own eyes wide, likely spooked by the gunfire. But it was headed towards the docks proper and the clusters of people there–!

"Shit-!" my legs bunched up as I launched myself after them, the buffalo was almost raging, people were diving out of the way but it was only a matter of time before it gored somebody or one of the crew! "Move! Move! Out of the way!" I launched into the air, hurtling over the heads of the crowd as the soles of my boots became metal and I kicked off of the air, trying to get ahead of the buffalo-! Shit-!

Daniel was in the way-!

Even as I launched threw the air I let out a little sigh of relief as Daniel threw himself out of the way, barely clipped by the buffalo. I made a hard turn midair and dropped in front of the bright red animal, throwing my arms out and flexing my skin into metal as I literally caught it, digging my feet into the hardpacked dirt as I skidded to a halt, grabbing the buffalo by its shoulders and lifting it off the ground, letting its legs flail about uselessly.

It wasn't all that heavy to me, but it was hard to keep a grip on the struggling animal than I would have liked, I would like to avoid killing the thing if I could damnit!

"The fuck-?!" came from Daniel as he stumbled back up onto his feet and I gripped the hot buffalo tightly by its shoulders, ignoring the horns glancing against my metallic skin as it threw its head about.

"Eeeaaasy. Come on…" I said softly, ignoring the gasps from the people around me as I held the buffalo off the ground at an angle, "Shhhhhh… shhh shhh shhh… Easy big guy…"

"Mrreee?" the buffalo made a sound of angry confusion, it's legs slowing down in their flailing, the rider staring at me as he clung to the saddle the buffalo wore.

"S'okay… s'okay…" I said as soothingly as I could as I held up the buffalo, ignoring the heat and steam of the rain.

"The hell was that?!" Daniel demanded as I slowly eased the calming buffalo down, "Do you know who we are?!"

Pulling my hands from the shoulders of the buffalo, I gripped its head, holding it in place as I tried to soothe it while glancing at Daniel. His brilliantly red coat was torn from where the buffalo's horn had glanced him, singed black around the cut from the buffalo's heat, but aside from a slow trickle of blood, it seemed to be just a small flesh wound since the taller man wasn't favoring that arm, "Easy, you're–" a flash of silver and red, "–okay-…?"

There were a few screams from the crowd over the sound of the rain.

I blinked twice as the body of the fire buffalo fell to the ground and I was left holding on to a head. Then I snarled, "The hell was that for?!"

But Daniel had his back to me, instead holding his saber threateningly at the man who was scrambling off of the buffalo's back, "You could have killed me you inconsiderate shit."

"Daniel! Enough!" I snapped, dropping the head of the animal, my hand was on my saber as I gestured with the other, "The guy lost control of the buffalo! A buffalo you've already killed!" Which I felt was excessive in the first place but come on!

"And this shit needs to take responsibility!" Daniel's long, wavy brown hair tossed about as he snarled, still advancing on the man who was crabwalking backwards away.

A snarl spread across my face, "Daniel! Lay off! This crosses the line!" I moved around the still warm body of the buffalo, my hood having fallen down and letting rain hit my bare head, "It was obviously an accident!"

"And his accident hurt me, that can't stand!" Daniel lunged forward, stabbing the man in the thigh and getting a scream.

I tensed before shouting, "Daniel! Enough! You've already killed his buffalo!" We didn't want to provoke the local authorities if we could avoid it, and god damnit this was excessive for an accident! Even if this was somehow worth retaliation beyond scaring the poor sap, it'd already been taken out of him by killing his buffalo, not to mention fucking stabbing him! "This is absurd and cruel and you fucking agreed to avoid that!"

"So what?" the words made me draw short, staring at the taller man in disbelief even as he raised his sword again.

The handle of my saber cracked in my grip, pointing at the brown haired man, "Daniel! I am warning you, back the fuck down or–"

"Or what?" He sneered as he raised his saber again, the man sobbing and recoiling, "We all know you won't hurt your fucking 'family', goody two shoes."

…

Something snapped.

…

'No.'

-o Bonney o-​

Nothing bad yet thankfully.

I sat just behind Claude as he sold off the excess McPuffin meat and pelts. Most of the crew was sticking close to the Cake for now, mostly 'cause they wanted to get paid before having a night on the town.

Tearing a bite out of the pizza that Flroida'd made using the McPuffin meat. Some bacon and some sausage with the meat, couple other toppings and tons of cheese. He always did pizzas better than Rodger. Lucca was still out getting stuff for the guns, we didn't use that many bullets, but Lucca rather enjoyed working on it. Jacob had left early in the morning when we'd docked with that arm he'd been making. I knew that a few of my other guys were out on the town for various reasons, but most of them were still here around my ship.

Wallace was helping with the unloading, Claude was doing most of the selling, with Jaime helping out. Lucca would normally be the one to help sell things but he was out and about. Rodger was still on the ship and Tom was helping organize the unloading. Casey was amongst the crowd, as was Daniel, though Daniel was mad about something to do with the maps.

Me? I was sitting behind Claude and being pretty while eating, which meant not stuffing my face as much as I really wish I could. Ugh, I did not care what these fucks thought, I was hungry, but Claude was right. Sounded stupid, but it was true. People could be pretty stupid when it came to a pair of tits and legs, so I'd gone with shorts, my boots, stockings, my hat, and a dark sleeveless shirt because of the stupid fucking rain.

I had a bad feeling about today... and not just about the rain. Hell, about this whole island really. I didn't want to be here. Now that we had the McPuffin meat, I really wanted to get gone. There weren't any good pickings here now without provoking King Shaka, and that shit just wasn't worth it.

I don't think I'd have minded so much if we hadn't run into that... mess. That village...

It'd be easy to say it's not my problem, but fucking Florida Jacob... asshole had to bring up that those people were nakama to others. Sure, he was a goody two shoes, and it wasn't our problem, but damnit if that hit home.

I was still gonna look out for my crew first, take care of me and mine first thing. And while he was a pain, Jacob was mine, same as the rest of my crew.

A smile crossed my face as I tore out another bite out of the slice of pizza. At least he could handle himself. Now if only he'd be less of a goody two shoes, ugh.

It wouldn't bug me so much if he wasn't so damn good or if he was an ass about it. But he just made it a transaction, 'play by my rules and I help' and he wasn't unreasonable. The idea of your comrades being like family… it was different, but… I could see it. And people getting hurt in a fight was fine, even if he didn't like it, it was just the cruelty and shit after the fight that got his panties into a bunch. But he was still 'nakama first' like a pirate had to be and was strong enough that he could pull that 'don't hurt civilians' shit off.

Clouds slowly passed overhead, and I watched them lazily as I chewed. It was like mom had said, with enough strength you could get away with a lot of shit.

A frown crossed my face as I realized what I was thinking about. Ugh, not again.

I sat up, letting the chair I was in drop back down onto all of its feet. I shifted my legs some to keep any juices from the pizza falling onto my stockings and looked out over the crowd. Lucca wasn't back? No. Ugh.

Daniel was still almost stomping about out there… huh, that's a pretty bull… lots of red and orange… kinda curious how it'd taste… ah! There's Jacob.

I sat up a bit more, the asshole didn't have that arm any more. Didn't… look like he had anything else on him… so what was he trading it for? He was too smart to just get rid of it or give it away.

There was gunfire-? I looked over to find some of my idiots at a table with some locals… looks like they won some sort of game. Heh. Long as there wasn't any trouble, can't really spend any money if you piss off the locals–

"Move! Move! Out of the way!" My head jerked back at the sound of Jacob's voice as he ran through the air as the splash of color of the bull. I'd barely heard him through the noise of the crowd and had only picked up on it 'cause his voice was familiar.

Well shit, the bull was panicking. Mm, might've interfered, but Jacob was already on it-

It was right about then that I realized that Daniel hadn't heard any of that!

'Shit-!'

I launched to my feet as Daniel was clipped by the bull even as he threw himself to the side, the slice of pizza landing on the table as I got read to move- but Florida slammed to the dirt in front of the bull and lifted it into the air, his coat settling as the thing squirmed. I relaxed a bit as Daniel stood back up, but still…

Leaving the pizza where it was atop the table, I began to move towards them through the crowd. I didn't think Daniel was hurt bad, but I could fix that shit up, and he was never all that good with his temper.

There was a bit of murmuring from the crowd that had started to part around the bull as I pushed past Claude and shouldered my way through the mass of idiots. I couldn't hear what was going on over the roar of the pouring rain.

Daniel was shouting something angrily even as Florida eased the bull down onto its feet, the rider on the thing was trembling like a leaf. Idiot shouldn't have been on the beast if it was going to go crazy.

There were a few screams and Florida's voice was suddenly audible over the noise of the crowd and rain… and it was angry. I could smell copper. Fuck. Frowning, I began to push forward, I saw the rider who was above the crowd tumble back- Daniel killed the bull. Ugh.

... while I couldn't make out what they were saying yet as the idiots around me blocked the sound and spoke, I could tell that Florida sounded angry. Angrier than I'd have thought he'd be for the death of an animal, I mean, come on, he'd helped us go for the McPuffins and experimented on animals and shit. So what if the bull was dead?

A scream rose from the crowd and the cowards almost stumbled away from the noise, it definitely wasn't Daniel, but that didn't sound like Florida-

Then it clicked.

'… shit. That's the rider. And there's no way Florida's okay with that shit. I mean, hell, I'm not okay with that shit.' I started to shove people out of the way, 'Scare the fucking idiot, don't stab them. Stabbing people in the middle of a fucking crowd is a great way to attract attention.' We were stuck here for almost a full month still, and I seriously doubted any forgiveness Shaka was willing to extend us would stay extended if we went around fucking up his people. And this was the town we frequented damnit! Making them hostile towards us was just fucking stupid! It was like my mom said, don't make the cook of your house angry, you gotta come back and they'll get their revenge some time.

"-is absurd and cruel and you fucking agreed to avoid that!"

Damnit! These idiots are just standing around gaping but it's too closely packed to slip through! I shoved and pushed people out of the way as I tried to get to this and head it off, Daniel was too confrontational–

"So what?"

'Damnit Daniel!' I ground my teeth together as I pushed my way forward, 'Why are you provoking him?!'

Finally, I shoved my way past the idiots and into the cleared circle around the dead body of the red and orange bull as well as my two idiot crew members and the rider. Daniel'd beheaded the bull, but now was advancing on the rider who'd fallen on his ass, Florida was a few steps behind him, pointing angrily even as his sword was breaking in his grip.

Daniel was in the same red jacket he always wore, pants and a simple shirt beneath his fancy red jacket with the gold trim. There was a small tear in the sleeve and some blood as well, and some of that wavy mess of brown hair he called a style was out of place, but he was overall fine.

"Daniel!" Jacob was… frantic? Furious and frantic and… afraid? It was hard to put words to that expression, but it wasn't one I'd ever seen on his face. The scar across his eyes and temples had gone almost… jagged as it scrunched up, looking almost like lightning against his tan skin, "I am warning you, back the fuck down or–"

Daniel sneered as he reared back with his saber, and I knew instantly that this was bad, "Or what? We all know you won't hurt your fucking 'family', goody two shoes."

"Damnit Daniel," I shouted, hoping to head this off, nearly stomping forward. It was one thing to ignore the agreement with Florida, stupid as it might've been, it was another thing to ignore it right in front of him and telling him off! Ironhide was basically our Quartermaster in all but name, and that last bit was only because I hadn't felt it needed to be fucking official! "That crosses the line! Enough!"

That was all retarded, but shit like that? That got me involved, and I didn't use kid gloves like Florida did–

I froze, mid glance at the young man, his face had gone cold, the horizontal scar on his face had returned to a straight line, and the snarl on his lips had gone away, as had any trace of his usual small smile. But his green eyes… they'd gone a gunmetal gray.

'What-?'

Daniel, the fucking idiot, started to stab forward with his sword and Florida moved, crossing the last few feet between them in an instant, his right hand closing around Daniel's left elbow, halting its forward motion. Daniel started to turn, but Florida twisted his arm out of the way before driving his fist into Daniel's side with several audible cracks, bodily lifting him off the ground with the blow.

I hesitated for just an instant as a brief choked gasp escaped Daniel as the wind was knocked out of him like a freight train. I didn't know if this was just Florida's 'discipline face' or not, and I didn't want to get into a direct conflict with Florida.

But he wasn't done, the smaller man let go of Daniel's elbow before slipping around and slamming an uppercut into Daniel's chin, staggering him back. Ironhide's arm shot out to catch Daniel by the throat as he fell and lift him up. Florida's face was blank as he held his arm high, holding the taller man off the ground by his throat, getting a weak gurgling noise from Daniel as he clutched at Florida's forearm.

The look in Florida's eyes though… they were gray and wide and intense in a way I don't think I'd seen before, lightning flashed and the rain pouring down his face making it seem like he was crying.

"Daniel… you seem to be operating under a mistaken assumption here…" Florida's upper lip began to curl upwards as he brought his right hand back, in a stance reminiscent of drawing a bow… his index finger extended from the fist as it began to slowly turn into that dull black of his metallic form and he began to bare his teeth–

'Shit! He's going to use Shigan?!'

"You forfeit any claims of familial connections when you attempted to kill an innocent man in cold blood. Shiga–"

I moved, and for all of his terrifying power and versatility, I was still much faster than Florida.

My hand closed around Florida's elbow, much like he'd just done to Daniel, "Stop! Florida, enough!" His muscles bunched under my grip through his long sleeved shirt, but he didn't resist. His gaze was locked on Daniel's face and I could feel the arm trembling.

A silence hung in the crowd as they stared, giving the three of us our space. I could hear the rest of the crew approaching through the crowd, it was a standoff… and damn it all this was not good. I couldn't let this turn into a power struggle, it could tear the crew apart.

After several long moments of the silence as the crowd murmured around us and Daniel choked and flailed, I broke the silence, "Jacob. Put Daniel down."

I felt him twitch beneath my grip and Florida took a slow, shuddering breath, "He broke my rule…" his voice was soft, but soft in the sense of barely restrained anger, "I warned him and he was going to break my rule."

"And you're about to kill him, which breaks one of my rules." I almost growled out warningly, reminding him of a core rule of my ship, of any pirate ship, comrades don't kill one another, "Put him down."

"I was pretty damn clear about what the consequences were!" his arm jerked as he half shouted and my grip tightened around his elbow, ready to use my power in an instant.

"And I won't have my crew killing one another!" I snapped back, ignoring the rain pouring down upon us, "Put. Him. Down."

Florida snarled, the scar across his face once more a jagged lightning bolt as it scrunched up, his voice had gone guttural, almost animalistic, his eyes a wild storm, "He broke the rule! He needs to pay!"

"And he will," I said honestly. I'd agreed to the rules of him joining the crew, even if my reasons for following them were different. I didn't want to attract too much attention or make it hard for us to spend our money or get food, he actually cared about the people. But I did agree with his terms, hell, they were just tweaking ones I'd already laid out. "But I'll punish him, not you. If you do it, you'll kill him and I won't have that between my crew." I said again, "The guy is alive, just injured. Do you really want to go there over that?"

He said nothing even as Daniel's face started to turn blue, the taller man kicking and scratching at Florida… but the blows didn't even register against his tough skin. The elbow in my hand was trembling still, straining slightly against my grip.

My chest was cold with worry, I did not want to get into a fight with Jacob. He was strong enough that I was worried about my chances in a straight fight, he was part of my crew, he was valuable enough that I didn't want to risk him just outright leaving… and damn it, as much of a pain as he could be I did like the guy.

The silence stretched, and I could practically feel the gazes of the crowd and my crew on us, but I kept my gaze locked on the back of Florida's head.

I pushed again, "Jacob. Put him down. I'll handle this." I could hear the breath hissing between his teeth as his chest heaved even as Daniel struggled to loosen the literally iron grip around his throat. I had to stop this now before anything else happened! My tone became harsh, "Florida D. Jacob. Put him down."

'If he doesn't, I'm going to have to use my power, and I don't want to risk that–'

To my relief though, Florida's trembling slowly eased off and he let go of Daniel's throat, the six and a half foot tall man dropping to the hardpacked dirt and mud in a heap, clutching his throat as he gasped for air.

Slowly, carefully, like I was dealing with a rabid animal, I lifted my hand from Florida's elbow. The situation was delicate, and I was going to drink myself silly if I was able to get this handled without losing one of my crew or having to fight one of them.

The downpour seemed to ease, and it was with a barely restrained sigh of relief from me that Florida's arms lowered. His facial scar starting to slowly straighten back out as he looked away from Daniel, his eyes closing and his lips pressing into a thin line, his hands going to grip his elbows tightly.

I placed my hands on my hips and ordered, if a bit gently, "Jacob, head on back to the Cake, I'll take it from here."

Daniel struggled back onto his hands and knees, and I had a brief moment of hope, the crowd was looking at us curiously and I knew my crew was looking on in concern. Florida hesitated, so I pressed, "You're way too angry right now, I've got it."

The young man took a slow breath, and it was like the steam out of a teapot as he blew it out, I could see glints of metal through his … but when Florida opened his eyes again, they were green once more and he grunted an unhappy agreement.

He started to walk away even as Daniel began to pick up the sword he'd dropped as he was strangled, and I turned towards my navigator-

It was at that point Daniel did something so stupid it baffled me.

Things happened fast.

There was a tickle at the edge of my senses of hostility and intent, not directed at me but nearby–

Florida spun on his heel–

Daniel started to move–

'No time–!'

My hand lashed out and I shoved with both my Ability and my hand, knocking Florida flying backwards into the crowd as Daniel lunged saber first. So I spun in place and kicked him right in the face. I felt something buckle beneath my boot as it slammed into his cheek, my leg sailing right over his sword before I followed through with the kick and dropped Daniel straight into the dirt hard.

"Wallace!" I shouted as suddenly higher pitched curses came from the bundle of now over-sized clothes that the de-aged Florida was practically swimming in, "Take Florida to the Cake and lock him up! Akira! Get over here and patch this idiot Daniel stabbed up!"

The larger of the two men I'd yelled orders at hesitated, probably still trying to figure out what happened as I planted my fists on my hips, my glare jumping between the stunned Daniel and the incapacitated Florida, "C-Captain?"

My glare swung around to level at Wallace, "What did I just say?"

"Yes Captain!" he stiffened and gave a quick salute of his fist against his chest, something from his time in his islands army, "Right away Captain!" He hurried over, scooping up the bundle of oversized clothing and flailing limbs, Florida and all. While he struggled slightly, he was able to keep a grip on the mass of clothing and limbs.

Satisfied that Florida would be held until he calmed down, I leveled a glare on the instigator of this bullshit that just might have cost me one of my crew members as he struggled to his hands and knees, blood dripping from his lip, "Daniel, are you fucking stupid?"

"Waszh gonna kill me…" he slurred out, glaring up at me.

I rolled my eyes, "No shit he was going to kill you since you pushed his buttons." Daniel made a face at that but I bent at the waist to jab a finger in his face, "You just fucking provoked him, you attacked the guy that's showing the rest of us how to detect sneak attacks, after I saved your fucking ass and was getting him to leave. You're fucking lucky I did, because now our fancy inventor might just leave."

"Only shaying that 'cause you wanna fuck him," the asshole slurred, making me bristle.

Grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, I jerked him up onto his feet, "What are you, fucking high or some shit? Are you trying to get your shit kicked in so far you can smell it? I didn't let people get away with bullshit like you were trying to pull even before Florida joined up, what the fuck made you think that doing it right in front of him would be a good idea?"

He looked away, and I saw the anger crack just a bit, "My jacket… i'sh special to me…"

"Too fucking bad," I said without a hint of sympathy for his bullshit, no matter how true. Yes, I'd ruin someone's day if someone messed with my brooch or some shit, but I'd keep enough presence of mind not to provoke someone like Florida or Shaka, fucking hell. There was no excuse, "You can get it fucking fixed. And on your own damn dime too, especially if this little stunt of yours makes Florida leave. You're down two shares of treasure, at least."

Daniel stiffened, but I let go of his shirt and glared up at him unflinchingly as he stumbled to regain his balance, "And don't you dare give me shit about this. This shit isn't acceptable. I'll let the bull slide, but not the rest of this shit."

He scowled, but I didn't give any sorts of fucks, "Now get to the Cake and sit in Akira's room until I get this shit settled down."

A petulant look crossed Daniel's face but I was having none of it, I grabbed the front of his shirt and jerked him down the half a foot to my level as I locked gazes with him in the pouring rain, "Did I fucking stutter?"

"No Captain."

"Good, now get your retarded ass out of here while I try to clean up this mess you made."

"Yes Captain."

---

The Madman Part 10 End