Kane is rudely awoken by an explosion, and a spray of splinters raining down on him. He slowly sits up, grunting as he brushes wood off his face.
When he finally deigns to open his eyes he freezes up completely.
Emmet's ship has been completely stopped in it's tracks by, as far as he can tell, a massive fucking harpoon gun being fired into its side. A thick chain connects this ship to a much larger one, the most notable part of which is a cartoonish skull and crossbones with dinner plates for eyes.
He blinks owlishly, taking in the scene. A gunshot from behind him startles him enough to start actually paying attention, scrambling to his feet. Unfortunately, his leg still hurts to walk on.
Back at the helm, Emmet is standing with his gun casually propped between the spokes of the wheel. Every few seconds he fires off a bullet. At what?
Well, on the other side of the ship is some huge person covered in ceramic plating. There's circular walls of ceramic sticking out of the back of the ship, which is really helpful as it turns out because each gun shot slams the hulking figure back into it with a resounding crash. Cracks spread and shards fall off, but in seconds a new circle grows out to cover it.
"…does that guy really have plate magic?" Kane asks slowly, staring in bewilderment. Emmet fires off another shot before answering.
"Yep. Plate plate fruit. They're a decently powerful pirate. Bounty 'round 15 mil last I checked it." He casually fires off another bullet, keeping them pinned against their own wall.
"And you're just… bouncing them off their own wall?" Kane asks slowly. Emmet merely nods.
It's shocking that the bullets have that sort of impact. Usually if a gun was powerful enough to move a figure so tall and heavy, it'd also pierce straight through it. Apparently not.
"So ah… You planning on ending this fight? I don't think I have anything quite that powerful." Kane admits reluctantly after a few moments of silence. The Wendigo ability looms over him like the codes to a nuke, and he's only glad that Emmet was here to handle this. Otherwise, he'd be forced to use it, and potentially become a cannibal.
The limits of his air whips are quickly becoming apparent. Whatever energy it uses, he doesn't have enough for a protracted fight going all out. It's default power level just isn't nearly high enough. He needs a rare ability to replace it, at least. Doppelganger might be that… if his own body were at all strong enough to use it.
Emmet sighs heavily.
"I would, but ya see, I left ma pellet rounds down in tha cargo hold. If ya want ta end this quicker, better run along an' fetch 'em. They'll be in a pouch on a crate by tha door, if'n you feel like getting this done."
Kane glances at the plate person getting continually smashed into a wall of their own making, wincing as emmet fires off another round. Yeah, maybe that's for the best.
He nods and hobbles down the stairs and into the cargo hold. Just to the right, a pouch sits right where he described it. Just as Kane grabs them-
Darkness. the light from the open door cuts off. Confused, he snags the pouch and goes to open the door.
He finds it already open, and smooth ceramic blocking where it once was.
"Pwhahaha! You think I'd let myself get hit over the head for ten minutes straight without coming up with a plan? Plate Plate Discus!"
Emmet's gun fires, but instead of the sound of the plate person getting slammed into a wall again, it seems to shatter a plate that sounds much smaller. Then he hears something rushing through the air, and hears a plate shatter somewhere above him.
"And do ya really think that shootin' good is all I can do?" Emmet responds back, "Punch Punch Pulse!" A rhythmic pulsing sounds out in time with a heartbeat, vibrating through the ship.
There's one thought running through Kane's head right now.
Those two are both nerds. Like, majorly. Not only naming their attacks such stupid things, but saying it out loud? This is real life, not an anime.
Oh, and he's also trapped with no way out. His mental finger hovers over Wendigo again, but he dismisses it. The consequences would be too great, if things went awry. Plus, the more obvious solution is to just beat it down with his whips, his energy has recovered enough.
He backs up a few metres and holds his hand out before forming a whip and letting it lash out at the plate. It leaves a crack but doesn't break it, and as he watches the damage slowly fixes itself. Cursing under his breath, he forms two whips and lashes at the same time. Just as they impact it he dissipates them and forms more, aiming to take it down through speed rather than raw power. Forming new whips every time seems far more efficient than just making one big one, but it also takes more time for the same impact.
Soon, the plate shatters and falls into a dozen pieces on either side of the door. He rushes out before the plate person can form another, surveying the battle.
It's… not good. Emmet keeps shooting the plate person, but every time they either block it with a discus, or just let it hit them and bounce off a plate formed in mid air. Not to mention, the collateral damage to their ships is insane. Everything is at least splintered, if not shattered completely. They're both fortunate enough that most of the damage remains above the deck, the plate person is confident enough in their abilities that they want to preserve the loot.
Meanwhile, the enemy themselves is just launching plates left and right. There are a dozen embedded in the wood surrounding Emmet, and smaller ones keeps shooting out of them and trying to hit him. Kane has no clue how Emmet can dodge any of those, he certainly wouldn't manage it himself.
Fortunately, both of them are too caught up in the battle to notice his escape. The pulses from Emmet's weird pulse ability are getting stronger and more frequent, sounding like an increasingly panicked heartbeat.
This part, at least, shouldn't be tough. Kane snatches the pouch out of his own hand with a whip and snaps it up, holding it just to Emmet's side. Predictably, the man doesn't even have to look before he fixes the bag to his waist and pulls out a single round bullet, the hand holding the gun casually tipping out whatever was left in there.
"Yer crap outta luck, my friend. Looks like I only need one mor' bullet to do ya in." Emmet drawls flippantly as he chambers the pellet.
Though hesitant at first, the plate person swiftly disregards the threat.
"Pwahah! You really think you'll get me with that one, don't you. Alright, lets see what you've got." They form four plates at once, one protecting each direction an attack could come from. "Plate Plate Cabinet!"
It's not a bad defense. Worst case they'll get hit in the foot and get a little hurt, so there should be no issue.
"Punch Punch Parade." Emmet says, his voice barely above a whisper. He shoots straight through the gap at the bottom of one of the corners, hitting the floor at the plate guy's feet. All Kane can see is the pellet bursting into half a dozen smaller ones that were crammed inside.
Then all the ceramic shatters at once, exploding violently in all directions. It embeds itself in the ship, a piece of it scratching his side through his shirt.
There, left in a heap on the floor, is a reedy and half naked person, not a shard of ceramic to cover them.
Congrats! Assisted in defeating the user of the Plate Plate fruit! Take x1 Bronze Ability roll.
"What the fuck was that?" Kane asks finally. Emmet snorts.
"That was ma current best move. I use a bullet fulla pellets, and they explode out on impact, each of 'em carrying the full power of a single Punch." He looks confident, leaning against the helm with an elbow.
"Not that, obviously. I mean calling out attack names like little kids." Kane snaps back. Emmet splutters, tipping his hat further down over his eyes.
"H-hey now, everyone does that. Maybe yer the weird one, huh?" He mumbles a little, staring down at the helm as if he needs to steer some more, and Kane just sighs.
"Whatever. I'm sitting back down. Later." Ignoring his hunger for now, Kane quickly takes a seat on the staircase again, trying his best to ignore the insane amount of damage they sustained there. Emmet releases the helm and goes to start taking care of the harpoon, and probably loot that other ship.
Kane, meanwhile, immediately does another roll.
[Heat Palm] |Common Ability|
Unordinary - Allows you to heat up your palms to red-hot levels, only your palms.
And isn't immensely impressed. It's hardly the worst thing he could've gotten though, maybe he could try to super heat air for his whips, or perhaps in combination with claws he could grab someone in place and really burn them. That just seems too cruel.
The description is also distinctly odd. What does it mean 'unordinary'? Is there something strange about the ability? Besides the obvious that is.
But no, more than that, the most important thing is that it gave him an extra ability slot. It's almost a shame that Doppelganger is the only other good ability he got honestly. A part of him was growing attached to the idea of keeping it secret.
But he's not willing to risk his life just for a trump card. If the ability will be useful at all, he's got to make use of it. That's that.
Sailing is boring. Kane had sort of hoped that getting attacked by pirates was a lot more common, but over the next couple of days there's nothing at all of interest. The skies are clear, and he certainly knows it, Emmet can't shut up about how "That's a bad omen on the grand line". It seems pretty normal for the sky to be clear most of the time. The temperature is pleasant enough, at least.
Back at the helm, Emmet fell asleep a few hours ago. It took a while for Kane to notice, what with the hat tipped over his eyes all the time. The ship feels quiet without his occasional comment.
He'd wake him up, but he can't be bothered to get up. These stairs have almost started to feel comfortable, with how long he's just been sat here doing nothing.
Fortunately, he can think of someone that's a little less lazy.
He activates Doppelganger, shuddering at the brief feeling of splitting before the simulacrum slips out of him, rising to it's feet. Kane tilts his head back to meet its eyes.
"…god that's fucking weird." He speaks through both mouths at once. Controlling the doppelganger comes naturally, as he figured when he first tested it. Despite this, it's quite difficult to make it actually convincing. Any expression it makes has to be completely purposeful because it doesn't have its own mind. It'll probably still fool someone that's never met him though. He's not tried using two at once yet though, nor using an air whip at the same time.
With a thought, he orders it to climb the stairs and shake Emmet awake. The man snorts and jerks upright, looking over his shoulder at the doppelganger as if that's his real body. Kane can still hear from it's ears and see from it's eyes, so for all intents and purposes it is.
"What- Kane? Ye didn't let me sleep, did ya?" His voice is groggy, lacking the 'deep and mysterious' affect he typically uses. He looks at some bauble strapped to the helm for a few seconds before cursing. "Dammit, Kane! Have ya never- It's th' Grand Line, not some fuckin' East Blue pleasure cruise! We've gone way off course."
He grabs the spokes of the wheel and tries to jerk the ship to the side, whilst Kane watches on.
"How off course could we really be? There's barely even been any wind." He asks from his doppelganger, to save raising his voice.
"Could be anythin'. Undercurrents, magnetism, fate. A sea beast once dragged my ship ta it's cove whilst I napped. Tha's why ya don't sail alone." Emmet speaks half-distracted, focusing on lining the ship up with the little compass thing in that glass ball.
Kane huffs and leans back against the railing. "Well, worse things have happened. We're not that off course."
Just then, to spite him, the clouds abruptly darken. As if they'd been waiting they sweep in, rain lashing at the ship and a bolt of lightning striking the ocean far too close for comfort. Kane immediately creates half a dozen air whips over his head to keep him dry whilst he runs into the cargo hold, leaving his doppelganger in the rain to deal with Emmet.
Wind whips at the sails, almost hard enough to tear them, and the helm spins wildly out of control. It jerks itself out of Emmet's grip, and despite his cursing and struggling he can't get it under control.
"Dammit, stupid Grand Line weather. Storm's takin' over, we'll have ta wait it out and hope it doesn't drown us." He spits out through gritted teeth, before giving up on the helm. "C'mon, below deck." He jerks his head and pinches the brim of his hat against the wind, his coat flapping behind him as he strides below deck. Kane doesn't react for a moment before remembering to make his doppelganger follow him.
They don't reach it before a wave hits the ship out of nowhere. The last thing Kane remembers before his head hits the wall is the world turning sideways, and then nothing.
—
Kane wakes up an unknown amount of time later, groaning in pain and buried under shelves. He was lucky enough for them to not have crushed him, but that does little for the throbbing pain in his skull. It seems quiet, but then… he hears some incessant noise. Slowly, he starts to realise that what he's hearing is from his doppelganger.
"Ya fixed me! Why can't ya fix 'im? He's not even hurt." Emmet is yelling at someone. Kane orders his Doppelganger to open it's eyes and sit up.
It's in a small doctor's office, Emmet standing directly in front of it. He turns it's head, and is startled to see a tall man with a ridiculously sized crown on his head. The man smiles warmly.
"Ah. I see he was just asleep, just as I told you. The Heal Heal fruit has never failed, I assure you." He puts a hand on the doppelganger's shoulder, squeezing lightly. "Now, I've set rooms aside for the two of you. Perhaps you'd like to stay a while?"
Emmet nods without hesitation.
"Of course. With our ship missin' we can't exactly leave anyhow."
They both stare at the doppelganger. Kane, still dazed, takes a few seconds to realise they expect it to talk.
"Yes. That makes sense." He has it say, whilst his real body slowly drags out from under the shelving.
He's still in the cargo hold, and it looks kind of wrecked. There's an uncomfortable amount of blood where he was laying, but it seems like it's not from anything like a head wound. Nothing is broken, just bruised horribly.
Importantly, it's also completely on it's side. The door is halfway up the wall, so with a frown, he lashes a pair of whips around it and uses them to carefully pull himself up and over the doorway.
"Wonderful! Oh, but…" The crown guy pauses a moment, putting his other hand on Emmet's shoulder. It glows gold for a moment, "Did I tell you? Your ship was sunk in the storm, so you'll have to stay anyway. I'm so sorry."
Whilst he speaks, he pulls Emmet and the doppelganger along, and Kane off handedly makes it go along with them.
"That's a mighty shame. S'pose we'll have ta stay 'til we get a new ship then." Emmet responds, tipping his hat slightly.
Kane pauses halfway to the door whilst they leave the doctor's office into a hallway. He thought they already talked about the ship? He shakes his head, cursing his lack of a healing ability. He really needs to get his real body over there so he can heal this knock to the head.
Once he gets to the doorway he sort of straddles the wall. The ship itself is, of course, also on it's side. There's quite the drop down to the railing, so he wraps his whips around the door again and carefully rappels down.
The ship isn't actually sunk, but it's not much better. It's been dashed on jagged, spiky rocks. It's a wonder that either of them survived, the lower deck is just splinters.
The crown stops Emmet at a wooden door. Paying attention again, the hallway looks rather expensive, with paintings and marble dotting the length of it. The man nudges Emmet forward slightly.
"This is your room. Your friend here will be just across the hall." He taps the doppelganger. Kane wonders if either of them know that that's not his real body. In hindsight, it's not like he ever told Emmet about the ability. Surely it's obvious though?
But apparently not.
"A'right. Kane, I'll be seein' ya. Thinking 'm gonna settle in and then go see what passes fer a saloon 'round here." He tips his hat and disappears into his room.
The crown guy smiles at Emmet as he disappears and then leads the doppelganger to the opposite room, opening the door and ushering it in. The smile fades off his face slightly.
"I don't believe I've introduced myself. You may call me Gaet or king. If you need anything, do seek out a servant. I'm quite busy. You are completely fine." He nods firmly and shuts the door.
Kane's feet touch the railing, a little wobbly but stable enough. He really feels like something is wrong, but his head hurts too much to put a finger on it. Is Emmet usually so agreeable?
When the man's footsteps fade, Kane has his doppelganger survey the room. It's expensive, albeit simple. A bed, a dresser, a night stand. There's a window overlooking a town from above. It walks over to it and looks down, showing Kane just how high up they are. The building itself is only three or four floors, but it seems to be built into some sort of small mountain that the town circles. Over at the edge of the buildings there's what seems to be a natural barrier of large spike rocks, and past that is ocean.
He has the doppelganger lay down so he can stop focusing on it, and think about his own situation.
Maybe staying in the cargo hold would've been better, there must've been a roll or two from surviving this, right? He can see a patch of rock that's safe to stand on not too far away though, one of many that have stabbed into the ship. Using his whips to make up for his shot balance, he carefully walks over across the edge of the railing. When he's close enough he leaps onto it and practically collapses.
"I… really need to heal." Iron man isn't doing anything for this. Marginally desperate, he pulls up his rolls screen so he can try for a spin.
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x1 Silver Trait ticket
x1 Advantaged Silver Trait ticket
He doesn't stop to think about it, doing the regular roll first.
[Eagle Eyes]|Uncommon Trait|
Your sense of sight and visual acuity are far beyond the norm, you can see a lot farther and a lot more clearly than the average person.
It's an immediate bust, so he rolls the second one quickly.
[Charming Smile]|Common Trait|
Your smile is really charming, helping people feel more at ease and comfortable with you. Or more attractive to your preffered partners.
Another bust, but fortunately this ticket is advantaged, so he watches the respin and hopes for something more.
[Receptive Body] |Uncommon Trait|
Your body is incredibly receptive and open to change without getting damaged and curbing negative side effects. Healing is more effective on you and you are less likely to suffer from negative effects from changes like super soldier serum or abilities that cause physical instability.