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SavoSlick grinned as he took his side of the field, sticky oil coating his palms already as he looked at directly at Mag, picking up the cannonball with one hand as it stuck to his fingertips. More oil leaked from his feet, this oil being extremely slippery as it spread across the ground. ”I feel I should mention something. You gave out your powers, so I think I’ll let you in on my style of art as well. I’m an oil man, one who ate the oiru oiru fruit. So don’t be sad if you can’t grasp my art.” More and more oil began to leak from Slick’s hands as he began sliding them over the ball, the ball slowly being covered with a sticky and viscous black sludge. Then he pulled out the lighter.
He began to wind up his throw, the ball detaching from his hands but still attached through a string of sticky oil, spinning in a circle as he lit the lighter and let its flame burn bright in his hand. ”Now let’s begin painting!” He flicked the lighter towards the cannonball at the same moment he let go, the ball of iron ignited as it shot towards Mag at quite the impressive speed.
Launcher kept her composure and dodged to the side rather than risk getting struck by the flaming sphere. Even if she could have stopped all its momentum, she had zero reason to grab hold of something that was actively burning. As soon as she moved, the refs blew their whistles and chastised Slick. “Use of forbidden materials! The game is played entirely with your natural abilities! For use of a lighter, one penalty point is awarded to Launcher!”
”WHAT!? HOW DARE YOU CRITICIZE MY ART!” It seems as though Slick completely missed the point that he had lost the round, but just this once he decided it wasn’t worth it to make the black and white men his art. ”Fine. Start the next round so I can continue my masterpiece. I’ve worked with less.”
Launcher shook her head at such a rookie, and frankly ludicrous, mistake her opponent had made. ”Perhaps I overestimated your powers of observation. No matter. Try it again so I can get to crushing you.”
Slick pulled the cannonball back towards him, dragging it through the dirt to put it out with minimal trouble as he picked it up once again. ”You can try. But I’m one slippery son of a bitch.” Once again he began swinging the ball, it’s momentum slowly picking up as it detached from his fingers once again and began swinging in a circle. Suddenly Slick pulled off yet another unexpected move as he swung the ball at Launcher, still attached to his whip of oil yet swinging at her ribs from her left side. He didn’t cross the line and he wasn’t using his lighter so all was well in his mind.
Slick was right in thinking his maneuver was ok, for it didn’t break any of the rules. Launcher reacted to the flail by holding out her hands to catch the ball head on. The very second the oil-soaked ball struck her hands it completely stopped, her devil fruit powers negating its vectors of motion. ”And now!” Launcher lifted the ball upward, drawing a circular arrow on its surface. ”Time to return to sender! Beku beku spin shot!”
The ball rocketed out of the palm of her hand, the sticky oil traveling with the ball, also having been affected by the motion-vector. But this shot was different from the others she had displayed in Caesar’s game. The ball was spinning, curving round and round and round as though orbiting some invisible force, all the while moving back in Slick’s general direction. The added spin had the extra benefit of flinging the oil Slick had stuck to the ball all around in various directions.
Slick narrowed his eyes, creating a hard wall of oil directly in front of him to stop the ball on his side of the court while also making sure he wasn’t directly touched by the ball so it didn’t count as a point. Just in case though, he leaned to the side in case the ball actually managed to drill through his defenses and shoot straight through. His caution was unnecessary as the ball stopped midway through the wall of oil and Slick let it dissolve onto the floor. He picked up the ball once again and began coating the cannonball in another layer of oil, this one being very clear. Aside from the shine that emanated from it, one could hardly even tell there was anything on the ball.
”Oiru oiru gunshot!” Slick cried out as he spun in a circle, the last syllable escaping his lips as he threw the ball directly at Launcher with no oil whip attached this time. This time the ball was slippery, even if she did try to catch it it would just slip right through and hit her anyways.
Launcher positioned both hands to catch the incoming cannonball, taking it directly rather than cupping around it. Just as before it stopped all motion the very second it touched her hands, the momentum magically transferred away. ”You don’t learn, do you?” she chided, lifting the ball up and preparing to toss it once more. ”My beku beku no mi means that I can instantly stop all motion! There’s nothing I can’t catch! Pfuauauauauaua!”
A loud whistle echoed across the hall. “Point for Slick!”
”Do the what now?” she asked flatly. She flexed her fingers to feel the ball in her grasp… But it wasn’t there. Looking down, she saw the cannonball between her feet. It had slipped from her hands the moment she stopped concentrating on nullifying vectors.
“Fumbled catch, ball made contact! Score is now 1-1!”
”Kekekekekekekekek!” Slick was hunched over with hands on his gut as he laughed at the expression on Launcher’s face, it was absolutely hilarious!
Launcher narrowed her eyes behind those sunglasses of hers. ”Fine.” She bent down to pick up the ball once again, first imbusing just the oil with motion to scatter it away. Once back up she licked her lips and held the ball forward. ”Your crew mate was way more fit than you and even he could barely react to the speeds I was throwing this before. So let’s see how you deal with my beku beku 200 km shot!” No tricks this time, no curves or spin. The ball just went rocketing toward Slick at ridiculous speed.
Slick straightened up just in time to hear Launcher’s declaration, his smile growing wider as he whipped out a stream of thick black oil into the air in front of him. He had gotten this idea from Caesar during his match, hopefully it would work as well as it did for him. The ball cut through the thick oil, slowing down a little, just enough for his plan as it became absolutely covered in the stuff as it rushed towards Slick. Then he reached out his hand and grabbed for the ball.
He didn’t try to resist the balls insane momentum, instead he went with it. Catching the ball in his left hand and pivoting on one foot, he began to spin with the ball’s momentum, no, even faster! He was a veritable blur as he spun in place faster and faster, until all of a sudden he let loose right back at Launcher! He had no idea how fast it was going by now, only that it was certainly much faster than a mere 200 kilometers.
”That won’t work! Beku beku air cushion!” Launcher thrust both palms forward as if to catch the cannonball Slick redirected right back at her. Using her devil fruit ability, she created a vector of motion in the very air particles themselves, effectively creating a strong, localized gust of wind! This gust slowed the ball’s velocity, allowing her to react quickly enough to grasp it once more without trouble. ”When will you learn, you slimy little thing? The dodgeball queen cannot be bested! Now take this! Beku beku 500 km shot!”
This was the shot that broke Caesar’s arm, and now it was coming straight for Slick! Still disoriented from spinning around so rapidly, the Red Rum cook never had a chance. The heavy ball of iron collided with his gut, sending him flying back. His ears were ringing. Either that, or it was the ref’s whistle. “Point for Launcher! Score is now 2-1! Possession goes to Slick!”
Slick’s ribs were on fire, and not in the usual way they were. Yet still he got to his feet and shook his head, smacking himself in the face a few times to reorient himself. ”I suppose this is the part where I say it’s time to get serious, but that would be a blatant lie.” He picked up the ball with one hand and rubbed his ribs with the other, covering the ball with a sticky black glaze once more as he thought about his plan of attack. There was no beating her in a straight throw, so he had to outthink her in order to win.
After a moment of thought he smiled and nodded once, a glint of determination in his eyes as he began to wind up the ball. As a sidenote, the oil that had been leaking from Slick’s feet this whole time has covered his entire side of the field by now, beginning to encroach on her side of the field as well. ”Alright, now for my latest technique! Oiru oiru… come up with a name for this later!” Despite the anticlimactic name, Slick threw the ball as hard as he could at Launcher, which admittedly was nowhere near as hard as she could throw it.
”Too slow! Negate beku!” As she had done so many times before, Launcher caught the ball, completely negating all its movement, and thus any force it carried. Launcher smirked, pulling off her sunglasses. ”I’m starting to think you’ve got a learning disability.”
”Funny, I was just thinking the same thing.” Slick said as he rooted his feet in the ground as thoroughly as possible, black oil connecting him to the floor as he pulled back on the cannonball as hard as he could.
As soon as she felt the tug, Launcher redoubled her efforts to stay grounded. ”Negate!” she lurched forward by about half a foot, but continued stopping the motion. No matter how hard Slick tugged, the cannonball simply refused to move any further. That’s when Launcher set her foot back down… Right into the encroaching oil!
”Whoop!” The navigator fell forward right on the line! She threw out her free hand, making damn sure to keep hold of the ball so as not to get a fumble penalty. The woman caught herself on the floor, crushing the sunglasses beneath her own weight… With her thumb barely over the line.
“Launcher has crossed the line! Penalty point awarded to Slick! Score is now tied at 2-2!”
With that, Slick grinned and cracked his knuckles, the loud popping echoing through the room. ”And it looks like we’ve reached opening night at the gallery. Time to unveil my masterpiece!” Slick picked up the ball once again, scanning the arena for the final stroke in his greatest work of art yet. Then he found it. Slowly he began to wind up the throw, making sure Launcher’s eyes were glued to the ball.
”Oiru oiru…” Slick threw the ball up into the air as high as he could before whipping out sticky oil onto Launcher’s side of the field, latching onto the forgotten ball from earlier. The one that had been Caesar’s downfall, would now be his vengeance. ”RETURN SHOT!” Slick pulled back on the ball as hard as he could, trying to hit Launcher from behind when she least expected it.
Launcher had stood up into a half-kneel position, ready to dodge and avoid the ball Slick was ready to throw, but she never expected what was to come next. What is he doing? Why did he shoot a string of oil nowhere near me? She twisted round to see what was going on, only to get a front row seat to her (metaphorical) demise. ”NO! BEKU NEGAT-URK!” Suddenly whipping around a full 180 degrees and attempting to throw her arms out after having so recently taken a fall did not do well and served to agitate her internal injury given to her by Caesar. The woman’s technique was interrupted as she coughed up another mouth full of blood, just in time for the forgotten cannonball to collide into her midsection.
Phweeeeeee! blew the whistle. “Penalty!” cried one of the referees.
“No way!” argued the second ref. “He hit her with a designated dodgeball, fair and square!”
“That ball was from the previous match!”
“So was the ball they started with!”
“You’re an idiot! You wouldn’t know a fair play if it hit you upside the head!”
“How about I hit you upside your head!”
The referees took to engaging in a struggle of their own, tearing at one another’s hair and rolling around on the ground in a big dust ball, beating one another senseless. Ignoring their ludicrous fighting, Launcher stood up, holding her injuries, and approached Slick. ”I’ve never once been bested before in dodgeball, even before I ate the beku beku no mi. Perhaps I’ve come to rely on its powers too much, I don’t know. But today, you have won the game. I gracefully admit defeat, pirate.”
She held her hand out to shake Slick’s, while half the Buccaneers in the stands began to openly weep. “That’s our Mag!” they’d say. “So gracious! So wonderful!”
Slick stared at her hand for a moment before reaching out with his own cautiously. He gripped her hand firmly and shook, looking her in the eye with a small smile. ”This has been my greatest work yet and I couldn’t have done it without inspiration. Thank you for being my muse.” With that Slick let go and returned to the rest of the crew, hands behind head as he whistled a jaunty tune. ”Man, you wouldn’t believe how difficult this last piece was! I had to go with a completely different style of painting, hardly any fire or explosions at all! You better get me a better canvas for next time if you want me to keep cooking for you guys, because I am just itching to paint my next masterpiece! And there’s that uncomfortable glint in his eyes again. The sanity was nice while it lasted I suppose.
