A collab between
@ProPro and myself.
Mag grinned what would have been a confident and badass grin.. Had her face not been covered in bubble gum.
”Just throw and dodge, you got it. You can catch the ball too, but that doesn’t give any points. And if you try to catch and the ball fumbles you of your hands, it counts as you getting hit. Are you ready?” The woman held her outstretched hand to the wall, a single hand, and snapped her left fingers.
BOOM! The deafening echo of a cannonshot resonated throughout the hall, shaking the room. A cannonball flew straight for the red haired woman, but she wasn’t worried in the least. In fact she
caught the cannonball in her bare hand!
The large iron ball had to weigh at least a hundred pounds and it was fired off at nearly 1000 meters per second! And she just caught the thing without even looking at it, without a care in the world! It stopped as soon as it struck her palm, not even pushing her back by a single inch!
”This will be our ball. So… Are you still-” Pop! splattered another bubble of gum all over her face.
”Game?”Caesar laughed, turning it into a cough, before pointing at the odd lady.
”So, you're just not going to do anything about the gum on your face, really?” He shook his head, sighing, before getting into a ready stance.
”Alright, not the weirdest thing I know. Let's play your little game.””What gum?” she asked rather nonchalantly, blowing another bubble. Before Caesar had the chance to respond she once again snapped her fingers. The two pirates that had setup the court reappeared, holding whistles and wearing striped shirts.
“Are both players ready?” the first asked. Launcher nodded, holding the cannonball at the ready for the first throw.
”Yeah, yeah, let's get this over with. Is about time for a nap.”The referee that didn’t speak blew hard into his whistle, signaling the start of the game. Launcher wasted no time in throwing the cannonball straight for Caesar’s chest. There was hardly any windup, by all means it looked to be a very weak throw. Then the ball left her hand and all appearances went out the window.
The cannonball shot straight and true, with enough force to shatter the floor and walls if Caesar dodged. Like it had been shot from an actual cannon, and it was about to hit the half-mink from point blank range.
”Oof,” Caesar grunted, dropping to the ground in instinct. He could feel his fur rustle from the force, and a spot of concern crossed his mind.
The ball blasted through the wall behind Caesar, leaving a good sized hole. One of the referee pirates blew his whistle. “Lost ball! We need a replacement! Loss is considered a fumble on the part of Caesar, therefore possession is given to Launcher!”
Another cannon fired off, aimed right for the red haired woman who effortlessly caught it just like the first.
”That was my weakest throw. There’s no shame in forfeiting against a superior opponent.””Superior my ass!” Caesar growled as he stood back up into a standing position.
”I'll go ahead and get semi serious.””Sit, puppy.” Launcher traced her left index finger along the ball, savoring the moment, then spun her arm for a windup. After several rotations she hurled it straight for Caesar’s midsection. The cannonball shot off a good deal faster than the last, faster even than Caesar was expecting. The ball struck him square in the gut, hard enough to knock the wind out of the half mink and burst some blood vessels. Then something inexplicable occurred. The ball immediately shot
back to Launcher, who caught it without trouble.
One of the referees blew a whistle. “Point for Launcher! Ball fumble for Caesar, possession back to Launcher!”
”Looks like you’ll need more than semi serious, pup.” The woman held the ball up readying another throw. Through the pain Caesar was able to notice something a bit strange. On the ball, as though etched in, was an arrow. Very peculiar.
Caesar growled, narrowing his eyes. So, that's how it was going to be.
”Well, I've seen plenty of weird shit since I left the island. A splitting guy. A bone kid. The obsessed fire guy spewing oil. A guy making cereal come out him. You throw hard, but I see that arrow. Ya either got dumb ideas about cannons and air, or you're another one of them aliens,” he spat out, straightening up again.
”Crazy magic aliens.”He snorted, thinking hard. He couldn't take harder ‘throws’, that was definite. As it was he couldn't guarantee catching, but that was the only way to get points. Maybe…. He'd never explored his electro, really. But electricity was involved with magnets, wasn't it? He felt like he had read that somewhere. Maybe. Possibly?
Could he perhaps slow the cannon ball enough to catch it and give it a good whap back?
”Aliens? Pfuauauauaua! Oh puppy, you’re delusional. I ate the beku beku no mi! I’m a vector man! Pfuauauaua! I can manipulate and control vectors of motion, like canceling out the motion of an object no matter how fast it’s moving, or giving an object motion with a touch. Like so. Beku beku 200 km/hour shot!” This time there was no windup, she merely held the cannonball forward and didn’t even throw the deadly weapon. All the same it shot forward with tremendous force.
Caesar narrowed his eyes, trying to force all the electro he could into his hands. He'd never done anything past channeling it in a weapon or a barrier, but….
It was his only option.
Flashing his fangs he moved to catch the ball, consequences be damned.
”Dirty, cheating, magic aliens!” he growled.
It looked like Caesar’s gambit was working. The natural magnetic field made by the electricity slowed the cannonball a good amount as the mink’s hands clamped around the ball. The force pushed him back three meters along the ground, but he managed to catch it. The repulsion effect hadn’t slowed it by a great degree, it still would’ve outright killed most people, but Caesar was mink. He wouldn’t go out so easy.
Just then the cannonball jerked backwards, heading straight back to Launcher, ready to receive it. Caesar had two options: let it go, or go flying with the ball.
Caesar was, as it turned out, incredibly stubborn. He did not release the ball from his grasp, nor did he intend to. As a battle strategy it could have worked out in his favor, letting him get close enough to his opponent to deliver a winning blow. However, in a sports game with rules…
A whistle echoed throughout the hall as Launcher caught the heavy ball, using her powers to instantly stop its motion. “Caesar foul! Crossing the line! Penalty point goes to Launcher, score is now 2-0!”
Caesar leaned in, blowing air out of his nose into Launcher's face.
”Real impressive, using magic alien mumbo jumbo to win a game.” The words were soft, taunting, and barely loud enough for her to hear before he walked backwards to his side of the arena.
Launcher shook her head, then wagged a finger at the mink.
”Just because you can’t account for my devil fruit doesn’t make it cheating. Now you’ll need to step up your game.” The woman lifted up the cannonball, and hurled it once again.
”Beku beku 200 km shot!”Caesar repeated his earlier technique, deathly quiet. As the cannonball made contact with his palms he spun, keeping it's momentum as much as he could, and released the ball straight for Launcher with as much force as he could manage to add into the throw.
Just like the last couple throws had done, the metal ball attempted a return vector straight back to its point of origin. Caesar was quick to adjust, realizing that she was somehow changing the ball’s movement and direction mid-flight, and worked with that by throwing it back even harder. As such the cannonball shot back at Launcher faster than she had anticipated. Her hands were not ready to catch it, to negate the motion of the metal orb. It struck her in the stomach with incredible force, enough to pulverize a normal human into meat chunks.
”Gah!” she cried out, flying backward and hard into the wall.
“Point for Caesar!” cried one of the referees. “Score is now 2-1 favoring Launcher!”
Launcher stood back up, her knees wobbling and her torso heavily bruised. She coughed up a bit of blood.
”I see. Nobody has ever been able to react fast enough to return a ball to me like that.” She hacked up a loogie dyed in blood, then spat it aside. The bubblegum in her mouth was also spat out.
”Alright then. I guess if you’re getting serious, I should take the training wheels off too. Pfuahahaha!”Instead of grabbing the cannonball for another lob, Launcher got down on all fours in a rather compromising and lewd position, crawling all around her side of the dodgeball court. Every few seconds she would etch an arrow onto the floor using her index finger, then crawl to another spot and do the same, then another and another. The arrows all pointed in seemingly different and random directions, but after a minute or two she was finished, stood up, and took hold of the iron ball again.
”Now then, let’s make this my final pitch.” She licked the top of her lip and held the ball outward, just beyond an arrow scratched into the floor in front of her.
”Beku beku 500 km shot!” Five
hundred?! That was over twice as fast as the last one!
Caesar narrowed his eyes, sliding into a combat stance while his fur stood on end from the electro running to his hands.
”Fine, then I'll go ahead and get 80% serious!” Caesar responded. Time to try something else new…. Damnable magic aliens.
Pushing out he tried to get his electro barrier to extend like it did with a solid weapon… Just without the weapon. If he could slow this down before it even got close…. He could catch it and send it back at her. Just like last time. If it didn't work….
Well, hopefully Liliana could fix him if he lived.
The extended electro was potent, fueled by Caesar’s determination and sheer stubbornness. It extended outward further than he’d ever extended it from just his body alone, and the field clashed with the incoming cannonball! The iron sphere pushed forward, forward, forward still! There was no doubt it had slowed the incoming assault, but had it been slowed enough? By the time it impacted with Caesar’s hands it was moving at about the same speed as her 200 km shot, not something he could take without injury… But Caesar would live.
As the mink slid backward several meters from the force of impact, he could hear a sickening
crunch! The adrenaline and his mink tolerance for pain prevented him from so much as noticing his right arm fracturing. There was work to do. Like before he added his own momentum to the cannonball in the return throw, and it shot back toward Launcher even faster than she had thrown it. In less than a fraction of a second it would collide with her smug face…
Except it didn’t. Three inches from the woman’s face the cannonball instantly changed vectors. No slowing, no turning, it was going one direction and then another without warning. It shot to the right of its target, then back, then left, then right, then… Keeping up with this thing was dizzying, but Caesar could notice a pattern. It changed direction every time it passed over one of the arrows etched on the floor, moving to correspond with the direction of said arrow. And now the large iron ball was blitzing around Launcher’s half of the dodgeball court in an overly elaborate, convoluted circle.
Caesar watched the ball warily, trying to formulate a plan of getting around that safety net she'd built around herself… Of course he’d need to actually get the ball first.
”And now,” his opponent began, licking her upper lip. She lifted her left hand, and snapped her fingers. In that instant all the arrows etched on the floor vanished completely, leaving the cannonball on its final trajectory, hurtling toward Caesar from a blind spot as it passed right between Launcher’s legs. He had only the time to brace himself before it slammed into his chest full force.
A whistle resounded throughout the hall. “And that’s game, everyone!”
Caesar slammed into the wall, his defensive push keeping him alive. Sliding down the wall he glared at Launcher before things went black around the edges and the roaring grew in his ears.
"Crazy... Alien... Magic...." he grunted, trying to stand and finding his arms to be useless and pain flaring through his body.
"That was a good trick. Maybe you ain't so bad after all hot stuff..."And with that, Caesar promptly slumped as his senses left him.
Member
