Devil's Luck Pirates

The sounds of pistols and rifles being shot echo through the walls of the cove as the battle rages on.

Pearl manages to keep at bay a sizable amount of enemies thanks to her fire, but not all of them.

Two pirates manage to avoid the flames, landing two good cuts on her side. She barely winces from this before quickly dispatching them with one punch to each of their throats.

More pirates come after her, but Verona quickly aims Little Timmy and takes his shot… That, unfortunately, hits Pearl in the shoulder doing a considerable amount of damage to her.

-Shit! – Verona says to himself – Sorry Pearl!

-I-It's ok… – She responds, swallowing the pain and getting back up – It's my fault. I should've moved out of the way in time.

She couldn't have known when nor where Verona was going to shoot. And on the other hand, Verona is blaming himself for hitting one of his crewmates again.

As Verona thinks about spending more time on target practice, the sound of a big explosion on his left brings him back.

-There's more commin' out of the houses up there. – Atom says, preparing a second bomb.

Verona looks up and sees a plethora of enemies on the scaffoldings and houses that cover the walls of the cove.

Atom throws another bomb at a nearby house where five pirates were ready to shoot. Blowing the wooden house into a thousand pieces before he and Verona take cover behind some boxes.

Meanwhile, Ragnar battles with Commander Volt at the center of all this mess.

He swings his ax down with both hands opening a gash on Volt's torso as the man groans. He responds by grabbing Ragnar with his metal arm. Then, a jolt of electricity courses through his body; electrocuting him to the core.

As Ragnar takes a step back, Volt taunts him with a cheeky smile as some of his men run past him with the intent of attacking Ragnar.

Ragnar prepares himself to deal with these guys until Duros stands in front of him, blocking all their attacks with his shield and knocking them out with his mace.

-Ragnar, will you be alright by yourself? – Duros asks concerned – I need to protect Pearl. If she takes too much damage, she'll lose control and threaten all of us like before.

Ragnar stares at Volt. His rage builds up as he imagines that guy electrifying the people of his village.

-You go protect the girl. – He says – I can handle these bastards by myself.

Duros smiles having complete faith in his crewmate.

-Where's William by the way? – Ragnar asks.

-He's trying to make his Devil Fruit work. It appears to be a bit more complicated than yours.

After his cool confrontation with Volt earlier, William quickly sneaked off behind some crates. If he's going to use this new power, he needs now exactly how it works.

-Alright. Let's see how this stuff works. – He says after making sure he's in the clear.

While on the way to the hideout, William talked a bit with Ragnar about how this whole Devil Fruit business works.

"It's like second nature to me. If I want to turn into a bear, I just do it. Like swinging my ax or moving an arm." William remembers the words of his shipwright and… just activates his Devil Fruit.

A roulette wheel pops on William's head –a physical one that spins for a couple of seconds until it suddenly stops on the number 311.

William then gets the same information he got when he first ate his fruit.

-What the fuck… – He says beyond confused. Not by the functionality of his powers, they are rather simple. You spin a wheel and gain powers as if you ate a new Devil Fruit.

No, he's confused by something else…

Back at the battle, Pearl managed to defeat several of Volt's men. Duros by her side and Verona shooting somewhere else.

As Pearl knocks down another pirate, another one hits her on the back of the head with a metal pipe. Duros insults the man as he throws a hand-ax at him, killing him on the spot. But before he could help her to get back up, a group of pirates gangs upon him.

She slowly stands back up. Dazed, and spitting out blood. She readies her fists to keep ongoing, but the voice of her Captain catches her attention.

-Pearl! Heads up! – William screams as he dashes towards her.

She turns around to see him with a faint smile on her face… Until she is greeted with a punch to the face like she never had before.

After witnessing this, everyone stops. Duros, Verona, Atom… Even the enemies stop for a second to process this.

Pearl stumbles back, almost falling over. She puts a hand on her cheek and looks a William with a death stare.

-WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU– She exclaims until noticing something – Wait… It didn't hurt? I actually feel better now!

At first, she thought that William is way too weak to really hurt her (which he is). But quickly realizes that not only his punch didn't hurt at all, but some of her injuries also stopped bleeding.

-Oh shit it worked... I-I mean, of course, it works! – William declares – This is the power of my Devil Fruit, the Gyaku Gyaku no Mi. Every action I do has the opposite effect. – He says while twirling his sword confidently before slashing at Pearl a couple of times.

Almost all the pain and injuries she had are now gone.

-You could've warned me, idiot! – She says while checking if his attacks didn't cut her.

-You wouldn't have let me do it otherwise. – William retorts.

-That's a very useful ability, Captain! – Duros comments after dispatching a pirate that was running towards him.

-Not so much actually. I can't turn it off, so I'd only be helping them by attacking. – He explains as a group of four pirates dash in their direction. With more coming out of the houses that remain. Atom mainly focused on destroying the advantageous position the enemy had.

-Well then, you focus on healing us, and we'll do the rest. – Pearl says. She and Duros meet their assailants head-on.

With a solid strategy, the crew keeps on fighting. Duros and Pearl are at the front, while Verona and Atom provide coverage. Ragnar continues his one on one with Volt and William running through the battlefield; punching and slashing his crewmates.

At one point, a pirate rushes towards William trying to take him out. William is ready to evade the incoming attack but instead decides to test his powers a bit more. Not knowing that Atom already saw the man and threw a sticky bomb at him.

William grabs the man at the same time the bomb sticks to his side and pulls him closer. Which has the opposite effect of pushing him back into another group of pirates with the bomb exploding just in time to take them all out.

William looks at Atom annoyed.

-My bad! But it worked, eh?

-Atom, this is the last time I'm going into a cave with you. – William states and moves on.

Before Atom could feel bad about William's comment, Verona pulls him down just in time as a group of enemies opens fire at them.

-That was close… Thanks, partner. – He says. Verona doesn't respond – Any idea on how to get rid of them?

-Can't you just blow them up? – Verona inquires.

-I'm almost dried out, men…

-Sigh… Useless as ever. – He comments while looking into his bag and pulling out a pitch-black bullet. He loads it into Little Timmy and takes aim – I guess it's time to be strong.

Verona pulls the trigger and hits the centermost pirate. Then, a dark sphere appears from inside him; consuming his body and sucking in the others into it as well. In seconds, all four pirates disappear into thin air together with the black hole.

-What the hell was that?! – Pearl asks, dropping a guy she was currently beating up.

-A little something I've been working in for a good time now. – Verona responds coming out of cover. Most of the combatants on the other side had already been taken care of.

-…Right. Verona, you need to practice your aim a lot more. I do not want to get hit by that thing! – William says.

-Aye, aye, Captain.

Back at Ragnar and Volt.

-Your one tough mother fucker… – Volt comments after Ragnar took yet another electrifying attack.

Ragnar looks at him with anger. With heavy breathing and his fur singed, he ditches his ax deciding to end this bastard with his bare hands.

-Let's see if you can take this then… - Volt turns on a knob on his mechanical arm. The gears on his arm start to turn way faster than before while energy covers his entire body.

Volt jumps as Ragnar brings down his claws, missing completely. He puts his metal hand on Ragnar's shoulder and a massive current of energy electrocutes them both.

-Ragnar, NO!! – Duros exclaims as the group witnesses this. Ragnar's scream echoed through the cave. His enormous figure drops to the floor with a loud thump as Volt stands over him victorious.