Power (One Piece FanFiction)

Fifteen

One of the more adventurous dragons came darting into our little hideout, whistling and chittering for all he's worth.

"What?! Little Timmy fell down the well?!" I shouted after hearing his panicked report.

I could almost see his soul slowly leaving his body as he hung his little head in disappointment.

"Uhm...Hana, that's not what he said." Chopper-in-Sanji kindly informed me.

I turned to Chopper with a grin, "I'm just joking. Don't worry, he thinks it's hilarious!"

The dragon chirped something to Chopper.

"Tch, how rude." I grumbled.

"You can understand them now?"

"In my case, it's mostly guessing," I admitted. "They help out a lot with recon at the Army, so they've learned a lot of signals to communicate. I just haven't had the time to learn them."

Cue a large screech from the dragon.

"That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it!"

"So what did he report anyways? He seemed kinda panicked." Nami-in-Franky asked.

"Oh right. Weird hairy giants with guns, right?" I asked the dragon. He nodded in confirmation.

"How the hell do you guess that?!"

"...instinct?" I guessed. "Well, no matter. I'll go check it out." I replaced my wing-restricting winter coat for a pair of long arm warmers and warm thoughts, and followed the dragon out of the hideout.

I barely gave names to the dragons anymore, their numbers were growing too quickly for me to keep track. But of course I'd still recognize my little Creeper, and a few others who had stood out to me. Creeper disappeared into the realm when my coat did. The lazy dragon still prefers comfort over adventure, that hasn't changed these past two years. I still don't understand why he sticks with me so often, but I don't mind it at all.

Hearing a high-pitched whistle, I began looking around the area. I easily spotted the furry giants he reported, and landed on a tall hill to observe them. There were three of them, each carrying guns relative to their size. So, big freakin guns.

"Ah, I've been spotted." One of them fired a shot. "I guess they're not friendly..." My haki showed that it was off target, so I didn't move. A cloud of powdery snow disrupted my vision as it surrounded me. Oh shit, that's probably not snow. I thought as I began getting sleepy. I may have fallen for it before, but not this time, forced slumber!

I sent energy throughout my body, forcing it to stay awake. I flew over the cloud of gas and whistled. The three giants were walking away, but stopped as they noticed me in the skies. I scowled as they decided that one was enough to deal with me. Well, taking them down one by one might be for the best.

The dragon that had accompanied me responded to my call, and I was happy to see that he had avoided the gas. "They're probably headed towards the hideout. Robins with Luffy, find her and let her know they should probably head back." It's not that I didn't think Nami and Chopper could handle it, in normal circumstances they probably could. But they're not in their own bodies, and they have to think about the children too. Yup, this is the best action to take. "I'll take care of this one."