The Mad Doctor of One Piece - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Orange flames roared into the sky as they formed into the shape of an eastern dragon breathing flames into the sky. It flows through the air curling up to strike, almost like a snake, before it lashed out in a straight line. The entire beast transforms into a streak blasting through the air until it struck the ocean kilometers away. The ocean exploded into a massive cloud of steam while sending out a tsunami wave.

Peter wasn't done. He held his arms out straight, his hands curled into fists. Small roiling balls of flames appeared in the air around his wrists where they rotated. Each time one of the flames arrived at the top of his fist he fired off a bullet of fire that streaked through the air. The rings of floating flames rotated as fast as a Gatling gun letting him fire off hundreds of rounds per minute. Each round streaked out for hundreds of feet before finally fizzling out from a loss of energy.

Still not done, he cranked up the power of the flames turning them from regular orange-red to bright white. The ambient temperature skyrockets as does the power of the flame bullets. They fly further, striking the ocean so far away and sending up little plumes of steam. Soon enough the sheer number of white-hot bullets impacting the water has the portion being impacted boiling vigorously.

Peer ends his attack letting the flames around his wrists dissipate. He places his hands in front of his chest with his palms facing each other and his fingers curled into a cage. Flames swirls out from the tips of his fingers and gather into a small ball between his palms. He continues to feed fire into the ball while compressing he flames to keep the ball as small as a bead. After around thirty seconds he pulls his hands apart and thrusts them forward.

The tiny ball of compressed flames launched through the air leaving a streak of light behind. After traveling several kilometers in mere seconds, it exploded. Blinding light filled the sky blotting out sight of the explosion followed closely by a deep bass roar that could be felt bone deep. The light and sound were quickly followed by a powerful blast of wind that swept over the entire island. When the glare cleared, all that was left to be seen was a mushroom cloud composed of steam.

After taking a moment for things to calm down there was the sound of polite clapping from behind him. Turning he looked at his two companions for the moment, Valeria and Momo. As he faces them their eyes flash with golden light as their new friends take over for the moment. Momo, or rather her symbiote Anise, is the first to speak, “I admit, I was still skeptical about there being anything actually supernatural going on. Part of me still doubts it and wishes to call you, and everyone else, Hok'tar. Yet between the memories of myself, my host, and yourself, I find myself with no logical explanation.”

Valeria, or rather her symbiote Jolinar, spoke next, “It is strange to see ones life through the eyes of another watching a simple piece of entertainment for the masses.” she chuckled darkly, “If Ra and the others were to learn that they were viewed as mere entertainment by humans I believe they would have aneurysms on the spot!”

Both Jolinar and Anise shared at laugh at that. Peter found himself chuckling along with them. Once the laughter died and with their moods still buoyed, he added, “I'm glad you two are so accepting of the situation. I admit, I didn't take into account how someone with memories would feel about being ripped from their world and thrust into another. I apologize, once more, for doing so without thinking.”

Jolinar is the first to speak while waving her hand in a dismissive manner, “It is fine. If your memories are to be believed, then I was mere hours from dying. Aside from that, Valeria is a wonderful host.” Jolinar giggled, “If she were in control right now she would be jumping up and down in her excitement over Captain Carter's memories. Not that my own aren't intriguing to her, I was just never a scientist. Before defecting to the Tok'Ra I was just a standard low class Goa'uld, after defecting I was an infiltrator and spy. Still, I am not unaware of how our technology worked.”

Anise spoke up after Jolinar, “I am more than satisfied to be partnered with Momo. She and I share a passion for knowledge and her... Quirk as it's called is simply astounding. I believe we will work together amazingly well.” She eyed Peter, “Though you must promise to get me a few skill potions from the woman named Nico Robin. I may have been a scientist and researcher most of the time, but I was also an archaeologist. I would like to study the past of this world.”

Peter nods calmly, “I'll see what I can do about that. I don't know how long we'll be in Arabasta for, but we should definitely meet her when we arrive at Jaya.”

Jolinar rolled her eyes and let out a sigh, “Valeria is begging to return to the ship. She wants to get started on a complete redesign of your next ship. I expect it will not take on a normal form... Oh. Forget I said anything, that's meant to be a secret.”

Jolinar dipped her head for a moment and when it came back up, Valeria was once more in charge. The head dip was a standard action to represent the Tok'Ra and host swapping who was in control. Valeria's expression instantly went from contrite to annoyed, “Jolinar and I need to do some talking in private. Can we go back to the ship already? I really want to explore what Jolinar and Anise can teach Momo and I.”

Peter laughs, “Yeah, let's go.”

All three of them slowly float off of the ground as they harness their Ki for flight. Anise shakes her head and lets out a deep sigh, “I still have trouble believing that the power of unaided flight is so simple. Truly, the universe is infinite and unknowable.”

Together the five of them made their way back to The Coming Storm through the skies. Peter deftly ignored the townsfolk staring at them with not a little bit of fear. The light show he'd just put on was on the uninhabited side of the island leaving them out of danger. That didn't change the fact that they were terrified by what they'd been able to see. Regardless of accidentally terrifying the locals, he'd had to find somewhere to practice and he couldn't just fly off in a random direction while within the Grand Line.

As his feet toughed the deck, his senses flared warning him about danger. Following his instincts, Peter ducked down under the attack he knew was coming. Spinning while ducked down he grabbed the handle of Inazuma and drew it. The blade came up just in time to block a second attack from his attacker.

Standing across from him was Alex, the sword in his hand coated in a weak layer of Armament Haki. Peter had already extracted the essence, or rather spirit, of his Devil Fruit after it had changed his body. Some testing had shown that while the effects of water and seastone had been negated, the power of Haki was still effective against him.

It wasn't the only weakness he had either, though he didn't need to worry about the second one. After all, no living being in the One Piece world could consciously use raw magic. It HAD to be raw magic with no elemental affiliation or effect, otherwise all Logia types would be able to be hit by all other Devil Fruit users. The only known people in the world that could use magic to harm him were on his crew and loyal to him.

With his second attack blocked and Peter now facing him, Alex went on the offensive, his sword flashing through the air only to be met by Peter's own. No longer surprised, Peter focuses on his own fledgling Armament Haki and barely managed to coat his blade with it to counter Alex's own. Both men had consumed the Skill Potions created with the help of Ace.

Surprisingly, or maybe not, Peter actually did have Conqueror's Haki and could use it with some skill thanks to Ace, though it was still raw and he needed much more training with it. The same applied to Armament and Observation Haki. With the skill potions he knew the basics and how to train it and could use it. However, all Haki was like a muscle, it needed to be used and practiced constantly to become stronger.

Thus his current battle against his first mate. Peter had ordered Alex to attempt to surprise attack him at random moments. The point of which was to refine his use of Observation Haki. Then they would spar with both of them using Observation and Armament. Of course, Peter would randomly attack Alex as well to help the man develop his own Observation Haki faster. Once Alex had a strong handle on it and had integrated Ace's skill completely, he would be making skill potions for the rest of the crew. It just happened that it was one instance where Alex's ability to copy things didn't help him in the least.

Their swords clashed for a while, sparks leaping off of the blades. Peter had been training hard to be worthy of using Inazuma, it was a Ryowazamono, after all, one of the fifty Skill Grade swords. It wasn't the highest tier of sword but it was still one of the top eighty-three swords in the entire world. That wasn't something small. Alex was making sure his skill grew by pushing him in their random spars and when they trained together.

Their blades continued to clash for several minutes before Alex's sword slithered through an opening Peter accidentally left. The blade bites deep into Peter's thigh slicing it open nearly to the bone. Peter instantly lost his balance and fell to the ground hissing in pain. Thankfully the nasty wound lasted less than thirty seconds before it was completely healed. Only the spilled blood and new slash in his shorts showed any sign that he'd been hurt so badly.

Alex flicks the blood off of his blade and sheaths it. Once his hands are free he offers one to Peter to help him up, “You're getting better.”

Peter grunted and took the offered help. Once on his feet he sheathed Inazuma and grumbled a bit, “Still not good enough to keep you for cutting me.”

Alex shrugged, “I cheat.”

Peter chuckled, “If you're not cheating you're not trying.”

Both men laughed at that for a bit before breaking up. Peter made his way to his cabin, Sakuya appearing from nowhere to follow him inside. As the door closed and he began to remove his short to clean up and change, he spots Sakuya. His lips curled into a smile, he did have a promise to keep.

-----Line Break-----

Peter stood at the wheel of The Coming Storm, following the direction the Log Pose was aiming toward. He had no idea where they were going and he loved it. There was still plenty of time to get to Jaya. Luffy and the others would only get there after saving Arabasta and thus far there had been no news on that front at all. He didn't expect there to be any for a while either. It wasn't really shown in the manga or anime but the travel time between islands could be as little as days and as much as weeks.

For example, Little Garden and Drum Island had to be fairly close or Nami would have died long before they arrived at Drum Island. With there having been no sign at all of the Strawhats being near Drum Island, it was likely to be as little as a few days to a week or more for them to arrive there.

He was pulled out of his musing by the roar of falling water as a massive head burst out of the ocean on the starboard side of the ship. Peter calmly looked at the massive head of the sea king that decided to pay them a visit. This particular one had an ugly frog-like face on a long giraffe-like neck, complete with spots.

No one on deck looked even the slightest bit concerned. Peter called out, “Anyone want to take care of that?”

Tobirama grinned and stepped toward the giant monster whose head was so massive it could have fit the entire ship within its mouth, “I'll do it! Been wanting to practice on something other than open air.”

Peter hummed and let Tobirama do whatever he wished. He was pretty certain that the only person on the ship who couldn't one-shot the giant beast was Ai. That girl did everything in her power to avoid training in anything but musical instruments and singing. Even now he could hear her working on a new song below deck.

The first time Jolinar and Anise had seen a Sea King in person had been downright hilarious. Their complaints about its biology and impossibly large size had been the stuff of legends. They'd been even more shocked when Alex had decapitated the beast with a Ki enhanced slash of his sword. Alex still hadn't quite figured out how to do 'flying slashes' just yet, but he felt he was close.

Meanwhile, Tobirama had recently begun to design ninjutsu techniques and was now practicing them to see what did and did not work. Naturally, he was having the most success with the water element, though he refused to be limited to a single element and is determined to master them all. Then he wanted to figure out how to create the so-called bloodline limits such as Ice Release and Lava Release. Peter doesn't doubt he's capable of pulling it off.

Tobirama stepped to the edge of the ship and began going through hand signs even as the giant beast roared its challenge to them. Tobirama inhales deeply as he finished the final hand sign. When he exhales he fires out a thin stream of water that lets out a whip crack of sound from breaking the sound barrier. The compressed stream of water slices cleanly through the sea king's neck when Tobirama slightly turns his head.

The beast just manages to register what had happened before it's eyes rolled into its skull and it dropped back into the sea. No one paid attention to the massive red stain that they soon sailed past. Peter gave some polite applause, “Not bad Tobirama. I can't WAIT until the Chakra Fruit are ready and you can teach us that!”

Tobirama smirked and returned to practicing and experimenting. He had a fairly large Chakra pool and his constant training had only increased it. Peter sighed and let himself relax while he maintained their course. Sailing through Paradise with his current crew was... well... paradise. Even the terrible storms weren't much of an issue thanks to Mera's control over water. The temperature could be annoying for the crew, though it wouldn't bother Peter anymore. Not to mention he now made an excellent heat source that kept any room he was within at a nice warm temperature when it was cold out.

However, the temperature and weather had been stable for a few hours now which meant they were closing in on their next island. He could only hope it would be a more interesting island than they'd visited thus far. Frankly, he was slightly disappointed with the journey so far. Where were the constant Marine ambushes? Or the constant bad guys on every island to fight? Granted, they'd had that happen once, but it seemed to happen to the Strawhats on almost every island they visited.

Why was he complaining when most people would be happy with a simple and safe journey? For one, he wanted to get some real fighting experience in. For another, and he recognized how petty it was, he wanted a bounty dammit! He especially wanted a big bounty before hitting Sabaody Archipelago, at least around one hundred million. He just wanted to be one of the cool kids as part of the Worst Generation. Petty? Sure. Fun? Oh hell yeah.

“Land ho!”

Peter checked the Log Pose and locked the wheel to, hopefully, keep them on course while he made his way to the bow with a spyglass. One could never tell in the Grand Line, even in a stable area. He peered through the spyglass at the upcoming island and frowned a bit. It looked... familiar. The island looked sort of like a gigantic flower with leaves turned up. Leave so massive they held entire forests on them.

“I know this island. Why do I know this island?” Peter muttered to himself.

It bugged the hell out of him even as they drew closer and looked for a place to park their ship. There were no canals leading into the islands, it turned out to be an archipelago, and no clearly visible way to climb the sheer cliffs to get into the top of the islands. Eventually, they decide to stop the ship next to one of the islands and drop anchor.

Peter looked at the crew gathering on the deck and addressed them all, “You guys wait here for a moment, there's something familiar about this place. I want to check it out to try and remember.”

After saying so, he took off into the air and flew up to the island. As he got closer, his eyes widened in surprise. The island looked like an unbelievable buffet of food growing on trees. Not just fruit, but things like cooked meat even! It was as if the Gormet World of Toriko had come to life. It also told Peter exactly why he remembered the islands.

“This is where Usopp was sent for the two year time skip!”

Peter felt extreme excitement at being where they were. Not only would it be an awesome place for Erina to learn some recipes and pick some stuff up that he couldn't produce, like soy sauce, but there were also the pop greens.

Now, he didn't want to steal Usopps shtick, however the pop greens were extremely useful and interesting plants. Hell, one of them could literally become a banana boat complete with oars, if he remembered right. Either way, it would make an awesome emergency boat that took up zero space. Not to mention there was no telling what the geniuses on his ship would come up with!

Peter quickly turned on a dime and flew back to the ship having not set foot on the carnivorous island. He'd remembered that as well. The whole island was designed to lure prey into eating until it was fat and slow, then consuming it. As long as he and his crew didn't get fat and slow they would be fine. Also, they could all fly. Something the island was definitely not capable of dealing with. That meant the whole place was their playground to enjoy.

Peter flew back down toward the ship and gave orders for them to find the largest island and make their way to it. He believed that one was the one Usopp was on and would have the Pop Greens. Just imagining what he could do with them via alchemy was enough to excite him. Imagining what his genius crew could do with them? That was a cause for celebration.

Before that though, he had a lot of work to do. The island produced tons of edible food and he wanted to take some parts of it with him. Things like soy sauce that he simply couldn't easily produce. He could summon soy beans with his Essence. He even had recipes for how to make soy sauce. The problem was the fermentation process. Much like alcohol, it would take time to ferment. Good recipes would require at least six months of fermentation.

Or, he could gather hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of gallons right then and there from the islands. To do so he needed to make bottles with expanded storage inside that would let them just have a single bottle to store all they could. The bottle could then be stored in the stasis fridge in the galley and it would take decades to even come close to expiring or going bad. Bottles, jars, and boxes were all things he planned to use a potion to enchant with expanded space so they could collect all kinds of things.

He was certain Erina would appreciate it a lot. She'd done amazing with the limitations they had using his ability to conjure ingredients and supplementing that with buying premade stuff, but most of the stuff being sold was below her threshold. The stuff from the island should be significantly better and easily last until Irina could produce sauces and such to her specifications. Something he would be happy to help her with.

By the time he finished making enough storage containers, it was dark out and he called it a night.

-----Line Break-----

The next morning he was woken up by an extremely excited and enthusiastic Erina, “C'mon c'mon! Get up! Alex just told me about the island! I want to explore it! Come on!”

She grabbed his hand and pulled Peter right out of his bed. He collapsed in a heap completely naked and standing at full mast. Erina turned bright red but notably doesn't look away. Her jaw worked as if she were attempting to speak but nothing was coming out. Even when Peter finally untangled himself from his blanket and stood proud, in multiple ways. Her eyes never lifted above his waist the entire time.

Feeling amused at the situation Peter can't help asking, “Like what you see?”

Erina's head began to nod before she realized what she was doing. With an embarrassed 'eep' she spun around to look away. She took several deep breaths while Peter went about getting his clothing. Finally she managed to ask, “Wh-why were you... uh...”

“Hard?”

“Uh huh.”

Peter chuckled, “Just doing my part for the boner wave.”

“Boner wave?” Realizing what she asked, Erina eeps again and covers her face with her hands.

“As the world spins morning is always happening somewhere waking men from their sleep with morning wood. It's like the tides, a constant rise and fall of erections.”

That proved to be too much for her causing Erina to flee the room. Peter laughed while continuing to get himself ready for the day. He'd always found the boner wave idea to be both horrifying and hilarious. It turned out to be pretty fun to put it into someone else head.

As Erina left the captains cabin, she found Sakuya standing nearby with a knowing smirk. Blushing brightly, Erina couldn't help but ask, “How does something that big fit?”

Sakuya gave a little shudder and sultry smile for a split second before she once again had her professional look on, “It's a bit uncomfortable, maybe even a bit painful, at first. But, once you get used to it? Then there's nothing to compare it to.”

Erina accepted what Sakuya said, but still ran away with an atomic blush to make her way onto the main deck for some fresher air further from the captains cabin. Sakuya watched her go with a teasing smile.

Peter soon left his cabin and stepped out onto the deck, Sakuya quickly falling in step behind him. Peter looked around to see who was on deck and called out, “Tobirama! Erina and I..” A little, “Ahem” from behind him had him continue, “And Sakuya, are heading onto the island to explore. Everyone else is free to explore as well as long as at least one of the fighters stays on board to protect the ship, just in case.”

Tobirama shrugs, “I'll stick around. This place is just a little too weird for me.”

Peter accepted that. It was none of his business if Tobirama wanted to hang out on the ship and not explore. He looked at Erina before offering the blonde his hand, “Shall we?”

Erina flushed lightly but accepted his hand and held it, how lewd.

Together the pair lifted into the air and flew up high to get onto the island. The moment they touched down, Erina let go of his hand as excitement overcame her. She quickly dashed to the nearest tree which seemed to be growing fully cooked ham hocks. He watched her take a small knife out and cut off a bit to taste it.

She hummed as she fully examined the flavor, “Not bad. I could do better, but for something growing on a tree it's remarkably tasty.”

Peter laughed when Erina dismissed the tree from her thoughts and attacked another, this one growing some kind of pie. Once she cut it open it turned out to be a pork pie. He looked around and wondered if they were in the pork section of the forest.

They spent hours exploring the forest moving from the pork section to a beef section then a chicken section. They even found a section of trees that had naturally grown spigots on them. Turning the spigot would produce something. One tree produced maple syrup which, on the surface, might not have seemed weird, if it weren't for the fact that the syrup was processed into the darker thicker stuff people were used to. After all, natural syrup directly from the tree was clear and water-like in consistency. It needed to be boiled and reduced down to become real syrup that could be used on food.

They did luck out and find themselves a grove of soy sauce trees which elicited a shout of joy from Erina that was echoed by Peter. He might have been American in his previous life, but he was a fan of all food and soy sauce was very versatile. It was also an instrumental part of a lot of Eastern cooking and would greatly expand Erina's repertoire of recipes.

For several hours the trio went about the island testing out the things it grew with Erina only approving of a select few ingredients and items. It was a few hours later when they stumbled across their first Pop Green plant. Sakuya was actually the one to stumble upon it, quite literally. She unknowingly stepped on one of the seeds from a nearby plant causing the seed to spontaneously grow. What shot out of the seed was a quickly growing snake-like plant that actually hissed as it tried to wrap around Sakuya to capture and eat her.

It failed. Miserably.

Moments after it grew and attempted to wrap around her, it burst into small cleanly diced pieces. Sakuya, as calm as ever, gently brushed invisible dirt off of her skirt and gave her companions a smile, “I believe we found what you were searching for, Master.”

Peter chuckled and nodded in agreement, “I believe we did at that.”

Checking the remains of the seed and comparing it to seeds on nearby plants, he finds the one producing the snake-like Pop Green. He produced a small pot from his storage ring and carefully extracted the plant from the ground. Once it was securely within its new pot, he pulled a bag out of his ring and set it inside. Living things could not be stored within his ring so he would need to carry it with him back to the ship the old fashioned way.

After that they began to discover more and more of the plants as they moved more toward the center of the 'island' they were on. Mostly they discovered them by stepping on them and having to destroy the resulting growth. Between Sakuya stopping time to carefully dice them and Peter just straight up igniting them, the plants proved to be little issue.

As they discovered more of the plants, Peter's Mad Doctor mind began kicking in and wondering what would happen if he were to splice different plants together to breed something greater. He had yet to make a chimera of any sort and the strange plants provided quite the opportunity. Yet it wasn't just monstrous flora he was interested in. What if he combined the Pop Green's rapid growth with something less deadly, like wheat or corn? He wanted to fuck over the world government so what would happen if he completely ended world hunger?

It wasn't an impossibility from what he could see. The Pop Greens were capable of growing on any surface. He was certain he recalled Usopp using Pop Greens on concrete and stone, surfaces where plants had no business growing. So, if he took the time to make a version that produced corn instead of a snake, it could be used literally anywhere and produce corn. The only time it would require good soil to grow was when the Pop Green seed was growing on a plant, and they could be grown in planters. That's how Usopp kept his ammo topped off, a small planter on the Thousand Sunny.

Just one or even a few small planters to grow the plants, harvest the seeds, toss them to grow them, then gather the food.

A smirk grew on Peter's face as he contemplated a non-violent method of messing with the world government. Islands like Arabasta would never have to import food again. He could just imagine the massive disruption such plants would have on the world economy.

“That's not a nice smile there, Captain. What's going on in that brain of yours?”

Pulled out of his thoughts by Erina's teasing question, he answered her, “Just contemplating an end to world hunger and the absolute chaos that will unfold because of it.”

Erina looked at him a little surprised before giving him a smirk of her own, “That sounds awesome.”

As a chef Erina was all about feeding people. Much like Sanji she would go out of her way to feed the starving even if she got nothing out of it but the satisfaction of the act. Making a world where there was no excuse for hunger appealed to her on a visceral level.

From there the search for Pop Greens and other items of interest continued until the sun began to set. With the light fading, the group does something the giant plant they're on could never predict and has no counter for, they take to the air and fly back to their ship. The plant would likely never really know that it was being mercilessly exploited by them and that was fine.

-----Line Break-----

The crew spent the next six days exploring the forest and gathering all sorts of food, drinks, sauces, Pop Greens, and other useful things. Peter had honestly lost track of everything they had gathered, what he hadn't lost track of was how much Erina's cooking had improved. It was amazing what that woman could do with quality ingredients. The ingredients he provided were top shelf, but local stuff they'd bought just didn't compare to what they'd found on the island.

As Mera called out orders and Tobirama worked with Alex to lift the anchor, Peter sat in a comfortable chair with Erina sitting on his lap. His arms were wrapped tightly around her to keep her in place. She very much did not want to leave even with Peter having promised to get an Eternal Pose to the place as soon as they could.

Her struggles were halfhearted at best and he was beginning to suspect her wiggling was just an excuse to grind herself against him. When she glanced over her shoulder and gave him a smirk, he was certain she was just messing with him. Regardless, he didn't let her go until the food islands fell off of the horizon.

When he finally released Erina, she just continued to sit on his lap with her arms crossed and a pout, “We could have stayed longer. We don't have to leave as soon as the Log Poses reset.”

Peter chuckled, “While that's true, we're on a bit of a schedule. I want to get to Jaya before the Strawhats do so I can rob Enel of his Goro Goro no mi. They could arrive at Arabasta at any time now and I'd like to get there around the same time and leave before they do.”

Erina huffed, “I know. We all know and we agree, but still!”

Peter chuckled and gave her a squeeze, “We'll go back, I promise. Until then you've still got plenty of stuff to experiment with. Then once Merlin and or Vivienne manage to make something that accelerates time, I can start brewing and making things that take time to ferment.”

Erina popped up off of his lap and started making her way toward the lower decks, “I'm going to make sure they get on that!”

Peter chuckled at her determination to get the best of the best for her cooking. He couldn't blame her. While his sense of taste was no where near as sophisticated as hers, he could literally taste the difference in the food when she had better ingredients to work with. A great chef like her can make even the most pedestrian of ingredients taste amazing. Just imagining what she could make with already great tasting ingredients made him drool.

A few hours into the journey with Mera doing her best to smooth out the rough weather, they hit a calm patch where they were greeted by a loud groan and the sound of crashing water. Half a dozen Sea Kings had just popped up out of nowhere. Peter groaned in annoyance until he spotted one that looked like a cow. It made him think of the one from Nami's home island.. Moo Moo or something. Only, that one he remembered as not being very big whereas the one towering over them was the largest of the group.

All this to say, beef would soon be on the menu. Peter started swinging his arms and rolling his head to stretch his shoulders and neck a bit, “I got this!”

Everyone on deck just nodded and went back to their work. Peter, meanwhile, crouched slightly before pushing off of the deck and flying into the air. As he flew three balls of fire roared to life just above and behind his shoulders and head. They quickly changed from basic red-orange to bright blue when fed oxygen from the wind half of his power. Being able to provide energy for his flames was such a cheat.

He'd been practicing creating plasma from oxygen. He couldn't remember the exact temperature he would need to reach for it to happen, he guessed somewhere between fifteen and thirty thousand degrees Fahrenheit. He had managed to produce plasma once, but he'd instantly lost control of it. The only thing that kept the loss of control from being a disaster was how high he'd been in the air at the time.

All that practice meant he could near instantly increase the temperature of his flames to a startling degree but if he wanted to maintain such power he needed to keep charging 'batteries' with such flames. Hence the orbs hovering just behind him. He could continue to feed the orb power and ramping it up while pulling fire out of the orbs to use in his attacks. Something he was about to take advantage of.

Once he was level with the heads of the massive Sea Kings, he pulled power from one of the orbs forming it into a spear within his right hand, “Hiyari!”

He cocked his arm back then through it forward, the bright blue concentration of fire turned into appeared to be a beam from the speed of the throw allowing it to easily blast through the head of a sheep looking Sea King.

He conjured more spears alternating with arm he threw with blasting cleaning through the heads of every Sea King but the cow looking one. Seeing all of its friends slaughtered had clearly terrified the beast as it was staring at Peter without moving. Its eyes were wide in fright while it trembled in terror. The pathetic look wasn't about to stay Peter's hand. The beast had surfaced with the intention of eating Peter and his crew, it was only fair that it should be prepared to be eaten in turn!

Peter slowly drew Inazuma from his waist. As he did the remaining flames at his back swirled around into a single stream that wrapped around the blade coating it in flames while he drew it. When the blade finished leaving the sheath, he gripped it in both hands and held it toward his right. While the cow stared in terror, Peter burst forward and slashed from right to left, “Hinoken!”

The blue flames wrapped around his blade leaped forth to extend the sword's length to a massive degree allowing him to cleanly slice through the Sea Kings neck in a single swipe that left only a cauterized stump behind.

It was a cheap trick that let him cut like a master swordsman without the skill to do it with just the blade. He was working on it though! He did want to be at least a great swordsman, if not the best. The little trick with his flames would work as a stopgap until he had true skill.

Before the corpse had a chance to sink into the sea, Peter flew down and grabbed onto it. Once it was in his grip he spread Ki around it and used the energy to grip the beast. Doing so would keep him from accidentally ripping it apart by trying to lift such a heavy load using just his hands. Dragging it close to the ship he shouted, “Someone get Erina! We're having beef for dinner!”

There were cheers while someone did as he'd asked.

They did, indeed, have a LOT of beef for dinner that night.

-----Line Break-----

Peter grinned as he looked at the upcoming island from the crows nest of the ship.

“Arabasta.”

They'd found there way to the next major island within Paradise, the desert island of Arabasta where Luffy would battle Crocodile and it would be a whole big thing. A big thing he had no intention of having anything to do with. He was pulled back to the present by Mera's call, “Captain! Marines!”

Peter's gaze moved along the horizon until he spotted three marine ships nearby the island turning and making their way toward his ship. Well, they were waving a pirate flag so it wasn't entirely unexpected. He pondered how he wanted to deal with them. They had time and nothing they needed to worry about the ships getting within firing range. Not that he was the least bit afraid of their cannons. Momo/Anise and Valeria/Jolinar had been very busy over the last few days. Their little carrack now sported a fully functional Goa'uld ship shield from an Al'kesh mid-range bomber. It was set in the center of the cannon deck and could project a shield around the entire ship strong enough to even protect from one of his attacks. Though continuous bombardment from his strong attacks would drain it pretty quickly. Simple cannons though? The shield probably wouldn't even notice.

Case in point, Peter calmly watched as the Marine's started firing their forward facing canons at them. Most of the shots missed by a fair margin though one got lucky. The single cannonball that got close hit the shield and exploded ineffectively against it revealing the usually invisible dome of energy protecting the ship for a brief moment.

The cannon fire didn't stop at the reveal of the energy shield, why would it? The world was filled with all kinds of Devil Fruits with all kinds of abilities. Bartolomeo, one of Luffy's future allies, had the Bari Bari no mi which literally let him make barriers similar to the one protecting The coming Storm. The marines natural response to such a thing? Shoot it more, it'll crack eventually. Technically, they were right even in this case. If they bombarded the shield for a hundred years non-stop and the crew never changed the power source, they would crack the shield.

The majority of the crew made their way onto the deck to watch as the three marine ships began to circle them firing their canons constantly. Eventually Ai spoke up in an annoyed tone, “Will someone shut those guys up already? That constant boom boom boom is hurting my ears!”

Peter reached over and pat Ai on the head, “Alright. I'll take care of one. You guys figure who will take out the other two.”

After saying so, Peter jumped up into the air and kicked off of it causing a small puff of air to solidify for a moment so he could jump off of it higher into the air. He casually used Geppo to climb higher into the sky, his hands in his pockets and a calm look on his face as he left the safety of the shield.

Immediately musket balls begin to pelt his body. Naturally, they do nothing but pass right through him. Which is still a weird feeling to Peter. Attacks that went through his body did have a sensation to them but it was like a ghost sensation, there and yet not. One particularly good shot managed to nail him in his right eye causing a burst of flames to flash for a bit before his eye returned.

That got quite the reaction from the people who saw it. After all, he was clearly not 'Fire Fist' Ace, yet he seemed to have the same Devil Fruit. Peter smirked and walked through the sky until he was directly above the ship he'd chosen to attack. Once he was in position, he just stopped trying to keep himself in the air. He dropped like a stone and landed hard on the deck of the ship cracking the wooden deck boards.

A large man shoves his way through the practically faceless marine troops to stand in front of Peter and glower at him, “Who are you?! How do you have the same power as 'Fire Fist' Ace of the Whitebeards?! I didn't hear about him dying!”

Peter looked at the man, he had a thick red beard that perfectly matched his hair, a scar over his right eye, beady black eyes, and a large bulbous nose. Peter didn't recognize him but how could he be expected to know every last marine? Peter slouched a little but chose to answer, why? Because he wanted to get some misinformation out there and to boost his threat level a bit. He really wanted to get a high bounty and be one of the Worst Generation, alright?!

“It's not the Mera Mera no mi.” He held his hands out with his palms facing up where he generated two roiling balls of bright yellow flame that drastically increased the temperature nearby. The heat pushed the marines back in fear, “I have the Taiyo Taiyo no mi, I'm a Sun Man!”

Every last marine nearby began to sweat heavily under the scorching heat coming from Peter's hands. The large man was no exception, though he showed less fear than the rank and file as he demanded, “Who are you?!”

Yes! That was exactly what Peter wanted! With a wicked grin and the fires still blazing hot in his hands he answered, “I am Dragon D. Peter, Captain of the Stormbringer pirates!”

Their talk was interrupted by a massive explosion that was quickly followed by a second one. Seconds later two people dropped onto the deck next to Peter and stood tall. On his left stood Merlin with a coy smile. On his right stood Tobirama, his arms crossed over his chest and a condescending look on his face.

Was Peter posing in the hopes of getting a cool looking poster? Maybe. But no one needed to know that.

Meanwhile the man that confronted Peter growled, “You will pay for this pirate! I am Lieutenant Commander Rocker a member of Captain Hina's Black Cage Corps! Do not think the sinking of two ships will change your fate! The Captain will capture or sink you, those are the only options for your future!”

Peter tilted his head a bit and slowly began to smile, “Two ships? My dear Rocker, there will be three sunken ships. I do hope your crew is good at swimming.”

As the final word left his mouth, Peter leaped into the air and began using Geppo to gain altitude. Merlin and Tobirama were right behind him. Peter cocked his arm back transforming the entire limb into roiling yellow fire, “Taiyoken!”

He punched forward, his entire arm expanding into a gigantic fist of fire that slammed into the deck of the ship right where he'd been standing. The powerful blast of fire easily crashed through the deck and cut the ship completely in half. It got worse for the marines the moment the flames touched the water as there was a massive steam explosion that blew the two halves of the ship away from each other and left many with scalding burns.

With the ship quickly sinking into the water, Peter and the others use Geppo to return to their ship. He glances at the remains of the other two ships. Neither Merlin nor Tobirama had shown much mercy. While they hadn't slaughtered the crews wholesale, they had sunk the ships without thought of casualties just as he had.

In his past life Peter might have felt regret for the loss of loft, probably even a mountain of guilt. Yet, this was not the first time he'd killed. Living on the street as an orphan was a hellish way to grow up. He'd done many things to survive then and he would continue to do them to remain alive. This was a world where only the strong had any rights. He would become one of the strong, no matter how many lives he had to stand on to get there.

Peter calmly watched the island of Arabasta growing larger as they drew closer. There was no sign of any other marines, but he expected more would show up soon enough. After all, Smoker was due to arrive to hound Luffy.

Thinking of Smoker made Peter shake his head. That man was an idiot with more pride than was healthy. He left his post to chase Luffy all because Luffy ruined his 'perfect record' for stopping pirates from getting into the Grand Line. Only... He couldn't have been doing it for all that long! Less than a year for sure, probably less than six months! Otherwise that Don guy couldn't have gotten into the Grand Line where he pissed off Mihawk.

In short, Smoker abandoned his post after his six month, or less, record was broken. Sore loser doesn't even begin to cover just how pathetic that was.

As they get closer to the island, Peter has them stop and drop anchor off shore. He didn't want to pull up to a dock for several reasons. Not least of which was the odds of Crocodile coming out to attack them. He didn't fear Crocodile. In fact, he was certain he could take Crocodile in a fight. The man was so out of shape he got crushed by Luffy. Peter wouldn't even need water on his fists to pound Crocodile, he had Armament Haki, weak as it might currently be, it would still be enough to touch and hurt Crocodile. Even without that, he also had a pair of brass knuckles with seastone caps on each knuckle.

No, he didn't want to fight Crocodile simply because the man was Luffy's to deal with. Peter's plan was to stick around just long enough to see the Strawhats arrive. He wanted to lay eyes on them and make sure the story was on course the way he understood it. He might have also hoped a few more marine ships might arrive that he could sink and use to boost his reputation and bounty.

The fact that crushing the Marines would also help Luffy escape with less damage to the Going Merry was just a nice bonus.

-----Line Break-----

Peter looked through the spyglass at the very familiar sail covered in a skull and crossbones wearing a straw hat with a red band on it. Peter laughed and moved the spyglass to get a look at the deck of the ship. Using a spyglass produced by a local would make it impossible for him to see more, but the one he had was made using advanced technology. The thing even had a zoom option!

Which he used to get a good look at the crew on the deck. Luffy was sitting on the sheep head bowspirit, Zoro was laying against the mast, likely asleep, Nami was by the rudder control steering the ship, and next to her was a young woman with long blue hair, Princess Vivi. He didn't spot Chopper, the little reindeer until he came out of the kitchen along with Sanji.

Peter lowered the spyglass and let out a sigh of relief. It looked like everything was going as expected. Which meant it was time to leave Arabasta and make their way toward Jaya. As long as they made it there and subsequently to Skypeia, he would be thrilled. He was about to give the order to pull anchor when he paused and thought for a bit.

There was opportunity here. There were two Logia users around during the coming events and neither one was a bad power. In fact... He could easily incorporate the Moku Moku no mi's smoke power into his current set. He could also see combining sand and wax to make a sturdier solid mass. The wax alone could be as strong as iron, adding in something more solid like sand should amp that durability up significantly. Wind and sand were made to be together.

There we also the powerful fruits used by the various members of Crocodiles little group, Baroque Works, to consider. The sword and spike fruits, for example. He'd be willing to bet those two would make an excellent combination together. There was also the mole fruit and the... was it a dog that ate a gun fruit or a gun that 'ate' a dog fruit? The second right? So a dog fruit and a mole fruit. He wasn't as excited by those though.

He also couldn't remember if the bomb guy and the kiloton girl were on Arabasta or not. He was pretty sure they weren't, which was fine. Though the bomb fruit was a missed opportunity for sure. He was certain Domino would love that one. Maybe they'd spend some time tracking the guy down later. They had all the time in the world after they met with Whitebeard.

He considered his options carefully, then made his decision. They would be sticking around to steal Devil Fruits from Crocodile and others after they were defeated. He'd have to deal with Smoker and Hina personally to get their. It would also expose him to the world government, but he didn't care. Once they came back from Skypeia he would be in possession of the single most powerful Devil Fruit ability in the world. He would control Plasma and be able to generate temperatures greater than the surface of the sun with ease.

Yeah. It seemed like Arabasta would be where his crew earned their stripes and put the fear of god into the world government.

With a wicked grin Peter shouted, “Everyone on deck! There's been a change of plans.”

-----Line Break-----

AN

A nice 8500-ish words for this one. I admit, the chapter fought me a bit as I tried to figure out how I wanted it to go. Now I've got a plan and things should heat up soon! Probably not next chapter, but likely chapter 10.

Anyone else think Peter is getting a bit too cocky and could use a bit of a slap? If so, lemme know how you'd do it. heh.

I'm having fun with this! I hope you guys are as well. Let me know what you think!