Devil's Luck Pirates

Duros and Verona's faces lighted up once they recognized the two silhouettes as Ragnar and William. But immediately began to worry the moment they saw just the two of them.

To William and Ragnar, on the other hand, their expressions went from a melancholic frown to a less melancholic one. Being reunited with their friends doesn't mean death is irrelevant now.

The crew exchanged greetings and hugs, with Duros almost breaking the remaining ribs William had.

-Did you find the prince? – Verona inquires.

-And what about Pearl? Where is she?! – Duros adds.

William then relates the events that transpired inside the prison. The liberation of those imprisoned unjustly, their fight with the Marines under Commander Denwar, and the confrontation with Not Steve. They also speak about having liberated Jasper and about Pearl flying him to the castle to deal with the king.

-Then we must hurry to the castle at once! – Duros declares with vigor.

-We also came across Marrow. – Ragnar adds. His seriousness comes more from his missed opportunity to fight him than Atom's ultimate demise.

-Is that why Atom is not here? – Verona questioned.

It was a rhetorical question. Their attitude was enough of an answer. Duros and Verona stay in silence for a moment. They didn't like him that much, but at the end of the day, Atom was their friend.

-He was the reason we managed to get past him… – William said melancholically.

Verona walks towards Saif's corpse not far from them. Without saying a word he takes the Commander's belt and fastens it to himself. He then picks the two scimitars from the ground and sheathes them – Then let's make sure his death was not in vain.

Their collective silence signals their agreement. The crew then marches forward towards the city. They come across the knights who have fought alongside Duros previously. All exhausted from the fight and unable to accompany them. The gates that connect the walled city to the harbor lay busted open, with marks similar to those inside the cave where they found Ragnar's Devil Fruit.

The battle can still be heard all over the city. Scattered pirates looking for plunder and slaves while the overstretched Marines and knights do what they can to stop this madness. The crew rushes through the destroyed and burned houses and stores, occasionally coming across a lost Steam Pipe pirate here and there, but none of them puts up enough of a fight. One swing from Ragnar's ax or Duros' mace, or one shot from Verona or William's guns is enough to take them down until they reach the center square; adorned with a big, red dragon statue right in the middle.

A sizable group of pirates have gathered here. Along with mounds of booty and groups of captured civilians. They seem to be waiting for Eustass Valve to come back from the castle so they can leave.

Naturally, Duros and the crew won't allow this. They immediately engage them head-on. There is no time for sneaking around.

Two pirates are immediately shot down by Verona and William, while two more fall thanks to Ragnar and Duros' simultaneous attack.

The twenty-odd pirates remaining take up arms and engage the crew. Some of them shout to have their attackers killed, while others shout back insisting on capturing them alive.

At this point, they know all the tricks these sorts of crooks have. Metal pipes, and steam-powered guns –although the last ones are somewhat troublesome thanks to their potency. William even manages to score one after taking its previous owner by surprise with a stab in the back. He picks the gun up, and fires at a nearby pirate. It goes straight through him, hitting another one behind him.

Verona also takes this opportunity to test his newly acquired scimitars. He's dabbled in sword-fighting before, training on dual-wielding since an early age. But sharpshooting was always his preferred method of combat.

A minute or so later, most of the pirates there are defeated, with the few survivors running away.

-Tsk… These guys barely serve as warmups at this point. – Ragnar lets out in contempt. He's still itching for that fight with Marrow and Valve.

-You'll have your fun soon, buddy. – William reassures his crewmate – Let's free these people and go to the castle already. – He adds kneeling to untie a group of people. His hand is about to touch the rope when a bullet grazes it.

He and the crew look to where it came from. A building four stories high not too far from where William stands. A female figure with black hair in a pixie cut, one earring in her ear, and a scar across her nose. He immediately recognizes her as Bullet.

-Hey there! It's been a while… – He lets out with false excitement.

The woman blows some smoke from the barrel of her gun – Sorry fellas! It's not personal, I swear. – She joyfully declares pointing her gunt at the crew once again.

-Do we know her? – Ragnar questions trying to identify the figure in the distance with his only good eye.

-It's the girl I won the Devil Fruit from back in Krendor. – William responds, happy that his hand is mostly in one piece – You even spoke to her back then! How do you not remember?!

-It's hard for me to remember weak people.

Denigrating comments aside, William focuses back on Bullet – Anyways, why be our enemy when you're clearly outnumbered now?!

-Don't call me an enemy, darling. – She responds with her usual flirtatious tone – Our goals simply happened to misalign at the moment.

-YOU ALMOST BLEW MY HAND OFF! – William reproached – Verona, just shoot her.

-Aye, aye, Captain. – Without a second thought, Verona aims and pulls the trigger. His shot hits Bullet's right arm with amazing accuracy considering the distance.

-AH! – She whines – Nice shot… guess it's time for me to get serious. – Bullet pulls out three additional revolvers. Holding two in each hand, using her pinky fingers on the triggers. Some would question the practicality of this, but when you are given the name "Bullet", it's almost a must for you to be talented when it comes to guns.

Taking advantage of the crew's convenient proximity, The woman fires her two sets of guns at them. One hit Ragnar in the shoulder; which he barely felt, Another grazed Verona's leg, the third one also hit William on the shoulder, and the last one bounced off Duros' raised shield.

William and Verona take cover behind some debris as they complain about their respective wounds, while Duros and Ragnar stand their ground.

-I liked you guys. I honestly did. – The woman confesses with as much sincerity as she can muster.

-Well, I never liked you at all! – Duros shouts back – In fact, I think you are a terrible person! – He pulls a hand-ax from his hip and takes aim.

-I kind of thought you were hot!! – William screams at Bullet before firing his steam gun. Bullet manages to dodge it with grace.

-Maybe in another life you'd have had a chance. – Bullet mocks before dodging Duros' hand-ax. She gets ready to shoot yet another volley until she notices Ragnar has disappeared. The building she's on trembles for a moment with the sound of something climbing its façade until Ragnar, in his hybrid form, jumps onto the roof; almost landing on top of a bewildered Bullet

She falls on her back, but recomposes herself quickly; aiming her four guns at the bear-man in front of her and pulling the triggers. Her revolvers having considerably more kick than an average flintlock, allow her shots to get past Ragnar's thick fur. He winces from the pain but still swings his ax down trying to cleave her in half. Bullet dodges yet again, jumping backward a couple of meters. She lands near the stairs that lead to the roof where the sound of rattling metal announces Duro's entry. He swings his mace at Bullet, hitting her in the forehead. The attack sends her back a couple of steps.

Bullet toughens it up and fires a volley towards the knight. Two are stopped by his armor, the other two manage to get through it.

The woman stops for a second to analyze the situation while keeping two guns pointed at her two opponents. Two guys who can tank her shots with relative ease and eleven bullets on her revolvers. She could unleash everything on Ragnar, hopefully taking him out, and rely on her agility to stay away from Duros as she reloads. Not to mention Verona and William down below. Why haven't they come up here yet?

-Heh… – She sighs. She didn't come all this way and got involved in this mess to give up so easily – I'm not going down without a fight!

-Are you sure about that? – William's voice countered from behind her back. She tilts her back enough to see the Captain's smug face and gun poking her back.

-How did you… – Bullet mumbled.

-This is not the first time I had to get up a building to get to someone that's trying to kill me. – William retorted. Omitting the fact he almost didn't make it thanks to the compromised structure of the building.

-After Ragnar and Duros made their way here, - He continues – Me and my buddy Verona liberated some of the people down there.

That statement hurt Bullet even more than Duro's mace to the face.

-I had complete confidence my two crewmates could take care of you. – William adds – I just came here to make sure they didn't kill you.

-Why? Don't tell me it's because of your crush on me… – She teases.

-No! – He retorts a bit embarrassed.

-Hehe… – Bullet lets out a defeted chuckle – Sigh… you guys win. – She announces dropping her guns. Duros promptly comes close and kicks them away from her. Ragnar returns to his normal form in disappointment.

-Honestly, I lost the will to fight when you told me yall freed the captives. That was about 100.000 Bellys worth.

Duros almost punches her in the face for putting a price on human lives if William doesn't calm him down.

-I'd never understand your fixation on slavery. – William critiqued putting a hand on her shoulder and pushing her towards the stairs. His gun still glued to her back.

The crew and their hostage come down from the building, reuniting with Verona who just finished untying the last group of captives. Bullet almost sheds a tear as she sees them running away.

-So, what now? – She asks nonchalantly.

-We, that's in me and my crew, will go the palace and kick the king and Eustass Valve's butt. – William illustrated as he patted her down.

-Oh, William! You rascal… – She playfully says as he takes her pouches and checks for any extra guns.

-Could you please not? – William asked, being fed up with the whole teasing stuff. He manages to find a sizable amount of ammunition, 10,000 Bellys, and some weird-looking green bullets – What are these things?

-Some special ammunition I got from a client. They release fast-growing vines that ensnare anyone they hit. – She explains disappointed she didn't get a chance to use them – So yall still gunning for Valve? He's a dangerous fella. They don't call him "Loose Cannon" for nothing.

-What can you tell us about him? – Verona inqueires.

-The guy is crazy. – She answers with a smile of… admiration, perhaps? – He has a Devil Fruit that essentially turned him into a steam engine.

-So fast and crazy. Got it. – William dismisses as he distributes Bullet's confiscated ammo between him and Verona then holsters his gun – I guess that's all we're going to get from you, so run along now. – He says waving his hand in dismissal.

-Really? You're gonna let a defenseless and penniless lady out there to fend for herself?! – Bullet never gets tired of these types of jokes.

-Better than being dead, no? – Verona responds.

-Humph… fine. Till we meet again, then. – She says before walking away as if she is going for a leisurely stroll.

-Tell me again why didn't we kill her? – Ragnar questions scratching his chin.

-An informant is a useful thing to have, my friend. – William responds.

-I suggest we go to the palace now. – Verona suggests.

The crew agrees in haste. The palace is not far from the town square where they stand. After a short run, they find themselves inside the inner walls that surround the palace. Marines with burn marks and pirates skewered with white bones. Not a good sight.

Following the sounds of clashing swords, cracking stones, and hysterical laughter to a giant hole in the wall that leads straight to the throne room.

Getting inside, the crew comes across a tense standoff.

Jasper; wielding a sword and looking impressively well compared to how he looked back in the prison, Captain Marrow; with a frowned brow and holding a crushed carton of chocolate milk, and Eustass Valve; with a grin on his face and surrounded by steam.

The battle to decide the fate of the Tarako Kingdom is nigh.