paixaorpg | Larxene vs. Luffy [Complete]

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From one long side of the dome, a steady sound began to approach with a quick, marching rhythm. Firm beats, growing stronger like mallets against a timpani's taut surface, pounding against the dome's solid construct and growing ever closer.

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After only a few moments, the first rhythm was abandoned for something more allegro. What could only be discerned as empassioned footsteps were coming faster, incredibly quick, climbing straight up the steep, curved surface of what would soon likely erupt into a battlefield. They never slowed or tired, keeping that faster pace until at last, a head popped over the side of the dome; a head shielded by a soft straw hat.

Luffy, with a fierce look on his face, had come running straight up the rounded surface, his arms thrusting madly as he moved with the speed akin to a cheetah in full sprint. He had no way of flying or teleporting, so scaling the dome with just his legs alone would have to do.

Finally, he reached the apex of Paixao itself and slowed to a stop. There he stood for a moment, silent and studious, and stared at Larxene for a second or two. Then he began to glance around in a curious fashion, the squinted look of his eyes seemingly searching for something. He didn't seem to find it, judging by the disappointed curl on his lips.

"Hey, you," he finally said to her, rather sternly. "You better get out of here. I'm supposed to have a big fight up here with some stupid, ugly hag. Have you seen her?"

Larxene watched Luffy as he seemed entirely confused about where he was. As he spoke to her, her mood soured instantly. She narrowed her eyes, and called forth her kunai.

"Stupid ugly hag I'm not," she said, voice almost a growl. "But I'm the one who's been waiting for you."

And without pause to let him reply, her lightning crackled around her as she charged up and whipped her kunai at him.

Sharply, Luffy's head snapped backwards with surprise; this was the dreaded Larxene? He'd never really paid attention to any sort of pictures that his little communicating box displayed, and had never heard any solid description of the nasty and unscrupulous person whose name kept getting dropped every time someone was hurt, taunted, or tortured. Yet there she was, giving him a vicious little sneer.

"Ah...are you...sure you're her!?" he began, asking a rather odd question only to catch the gleaming edge of the small weapon whizzing towards him. It was quick, but Luffy easily leaned off to one side, letting it sail past.

If he had any pause as to who his was opponent before, this was as good a sign to fight as any. His featured hardened, and he immediately threw himself at a quick sprint towards her like some speeding train on a straight set of tracks. He closed a great portion of the gap between them very suddenly, then stopped himself abruptly by stamping his front foot into the ground like a brake. Through the sharp halt, he let his momentum carry through him as he suddenly threw his arm forward into a hard punch. Strangely, though, Luffy was still at least ten feet away when he did so, but amazingly, his fist actually kept right on moving towards Larxene. Behind it, the man's arm was stretching straight out! His fist carried through the air swiftly, a good, strong blow that could lay any normal opponent out for hours if it connected, but anyone with a keen sense for battle would have no trouble dodging.

Larxene tutted as the man moved out of the way of the kunai; he was fast. Of course, she was fast, too, so when he began to dart forward, all of her muscles tensed as she balanced on her toes, prepared to move.

The fist caught her only slightly by surprise, as she had been expecting an attack, but not an arm that could stretch so. Was this little trick what made Luffy so confident?

She moved. Darting to one side and in, out of the way of the flying fist but following its arc back to the source. Electricity pulsed down her arm and through her hand, and as she closed more distance she let the electricity fly from her fingertips toward Luffy.

Gritting his teeth, Luffy pulled back on his shoulder sharply, forcing his arm to become taut faster and start to shrink back than it would have under its own power. Luffy couldn't actively control his stretchiness, forced to rely on his muscles to launch his limbs outward. He needed that arm back as fast as possible, with Larxene closing in fast!

With a thick, rubbery snap, Luffy whipped his errant arm around to the side and let its movement carry through him throw him into a sudden spin away from the crackling surface of her fingers, the fabric of his sharp red shirt just barely away from her touch. He circled around in midaid and kicked out one of his legs; it stretched, the lengthening limb acting like a thick whip as it came speeding towards her.

Larxene disappeared entirely, then--slipping into a portal before the limb could get near her. Part of this was simply avoiding injury, and part was getting a chance to study his style. She had never fought someone like him before, and it was quite a thrill to be playing with someone who could offer something new.

A moment later she reappeared above Luffy, with a thick crackle of electricity signaling her presence as she send a bolt down at his head.

Missing her entirely, Luffy's leg swept through the air in a full circle, spinning its owner in one full, quick rotation before it snapped back into place beneath him. He stood ready, skidding to a stop after the spin, his fists clentched and raised out at his sides; even in such a short span of time, Luffy was already expecting her next attack, but apparently wasn't expecting it to come from above!

Hearing the electric energies crackling above him, his head shot back in a flash, only to be greeted by the dazzling stream of light and power as it crashed straight down on top of him. He yelled out sharply as it completely engulfed him, illuminating his entire body.

"WaaaaaAAAHH!" he screamed, sounding genuinely hurt by the attack. He continued to shout in a similar fashion for a few moments longer, flailing his arms about and dancing in place in some bizarre display of writhing in pain. His voice and movements died away shortly after, however, fading down into nothing once he began to realize something - that attack did absolutely nothing.

"Oh. I guess that actually didn't hurt," he said, perfect surprise in his voice.

It was enough for Larxene to pause in her assault, hanging in the air as if suspended on a wire, eyes wide. Whatever he was, electricity wasn't effecting him. But what the hell was he, that he could stretch at least his limbs at will, and take a direct hit from her lightning bolt and be entirely unharmed?

Rubber. She glared. But how was that even possible? She hissed, an almost inhuman sound, and pitched more kunai. Even if the electricity failed her, he could still be cut, right?

He could be cut, just as easily as any other might, but he would not suffer so easily. In the moment he had managed to take her by surprise, Luffy recognized that she had skipped a beat in their violent little waltz, perhaps just enough for him to take a small lead; his features lost their softness and surprise, immediately being pitched back into focus and anger as he took several quick steps backwards and let the kunai from above stick into the ground by their pointed ends.

Tensing his legs, Luffy took a rocketing leap off of the ground, ascending as if he had been launched from a cannon. Then, with a quick shift of his body, he began to pull himself into a midair forward tumble, with one leg sticking out all the way through the rotation that he hoped would be brought crushingly straight down upon her head.

Still off-guard, Luffy's leg came far closer than she was comfortable with, and closer than she could move or warp out of the way. Darting back and raising her hands in one fluid motion, she summoned more kunai, this time held defensively, hoping to catch his leg on those instead of her. And either way, her arms were better than her head. She cursed her inattention; it wouldn't happen again.

Even in midair, Luffy was able to watch her react and respond with impressive precision; she seemed to regain her composure much faster than he had expected. He wouldn't be deterred, however, and the point in which he could turn away had long since passed. Luffy kept himself spinning forward, sweeping the thick of his heel straight down on top of her paired kunai.

If she has been anticipating a simple blow, she would be sadly mistaken. Luffy's leg came down like a ten-ton hammer, forcing Larxene to either pony up the proper physical strength to defend, or have herself properly flattened.

Larxene's skills were in her speed; she tried her best to avoid solid blows because defending against them was not her forte. And so, as soon as she felt the blow connect, her grip loosened on the kunai--hopefully they would lodge themselves in Luffy's heel--and she let the momentum to the work it was going to do anyway.

She fell fast, carried along with the trajectory, but even though her arms were crying out as if something much larger than Luffy's foot had been dropped on top of them she was busy, summoning a portal beneath her which she slipped through instead of hitting the ground.

There was a moment where she wasn't anywhere, as she made sure her hands were in working condition. Finding them still able to hold and throw, she reappeared near the edge, where the dome curved almost past the point of standing.

And three more copies of her stood as well. All of them darted forward as one, at top speed, whipping kunai.

Hissing painfully, the connecting blow came with a price as the jagged tips of Larxene's kunai dug lightly into his heel, letting a small bit of blood. It stung, but Luffy had been carved up far worse before; he landed quickly and once more waited for the crafty little live-wire to reappear. He stood ready, his fists raised threateningly in front of him.

Once she came into view, Luffy nearly jumped at the chance to press another attack, but when three targets materialized, he stopped suddenly, wearing a painfully shocked look on his face.

"Hmm! There's more than one now!" he gasped, his eyes darting between each one. "Is she some kind of ninja!?"

He had to move fast this time, with three coming so quickly. Luffy managed to side-step the first, then bend completely over backwards from his waist to avoid the second, but the third grazed his cheek, leaving a thick, red cut across the side of his face. Indignantly, Luffy straightened up, glaring at her as he rubbed a light trail of blood away with his palm.

"Dammit, that hurt!" he shouted furiously, suddenly crouching down and tense, as if ready to pounce like some feral cat. Using the muscles in his chest and shoulders, Luffy suddenly began to twist his upper body around and around, causing it to coil up into a thick spiral of rubbery flesh. He steadied himself with his hand against the ground for a moment, keeping himself from forcibly unwinding, then took a strong leap forward, moving so quickly that he practically hovered across the ground.

In flight, his torso began to spin around; using this winding motion, Luffy started to launch a stunning volley of rapid-fire punches, making his attack a full 360-degree circle as he shot towards the center of the Larxenes.

Growling like a feral animal, eyes narrowed, the copies disappeared, leaving only the real Larxene to deal with the assault. Kunai whirled as she deflected and stabbed as best she could. She wasn't defending against everything, not by far, but she was still on her feet, electricity crackling around her angrily. Larxene was doing her best to tear Luffy's hands to shreds, but she couldn't deal with this sort of heavy beating for long. She slipped into another portal, furious as she felt her breath catch at the effort. She wouldn't let this--this brat--run her ragged!

She reappeared with a second wind borne of injured pride; kunai flew through the air in a cloud, as fast as she could summon and throw them. Lightning crashed around her as she tried to obstruct Luffy's view of the onslaught.

As Luffy flew towards the remaining Larxene, his fists still madly pumping, he could feel a great number of his blows connecting, but at the same time he felt the searing pain of his hands, arms, fingers, knuckles, all being slashed, his thick, rubbery skin torn into with blood being tossed about, splattering against the smooth surface of the dome.

Once she slipped away, Luffy's momentum finally ceased, and his upper body stopped twirling. He skid to a quick halt, his sandals digging weakly into the dome's curved floor for traction. Again, he began to scan his surroundings carefully, looking for even a single glimpse of her to pounce upon.

Perhaps he stared too hard, too well focused, as when she reappeared, the brilliant flashes of lightning, some of them hitting just inches away from him, sending bursts of blinding light into his eyes, forcing him to blink sharply and try to shake away the disorientation. He yelped, his hands flying to his eyes to try and rub away the intangible haze.

Then came her kunai, stabbing into his right shoulder, burrowing into his left thigh, scraping through his left side and leaving a deep tear through his shirt, and many more with far worse. By the time Luffy was able to see clearly again, he began to move and dart to avoid, but Larxene's speedy and relentless attack continued to pelt against him like sharpened hail. While he leapt and weaved, most of the kunai that had pierced him fell away from the gashes in his skin, but a few remained stubbornly stuck in his flesh, twisting and waving about with his motions.

"Ah-ah-ah...damn, that hurts," he hissed tentatively, breathing more heavily now. Large portions of his shirt had been torn away, and long trails of blood ran down the sides of his legs and one of his arms. Despite the pain, he looked more determined and able than ever. Once he had finally regained the proper footing, Luffy leapt swiftly at her again, moving straight through her barrage of kunai; though several more pierced and grazed him, he kept right on coming. Once he was in range, just close enough to see the molten malice burning in her eyes, Luffy made a quick move to thrust both of his legs forward at her, placing the flat surface of both sandals squarely together so that the tips of his toes came together like a piercing end of a spear, one that came hurtling straight towards her midsection.

Larxene kicked back on her heels, sliding and rolling at once, letting Luffy come down on top of the dome as she teleported more distance between them. She could feel each burst of energy to create the portals, each twinge as she summoned kunai, the screaming whine whenever her lightning crackled.

This damned boy... She refused to allow him to get the best of her. Ignoring the pain, she summoned more kunai, threw them, and slipped away into the portal. It wasn't long before she reappeared, shooting more. And in and out she went, darting from one place to the other, only there long enough to throw and escape.

Shooting ahead, but with his target moving too quickly to be tagged by his pliant limbs, the tips of Luffy's paired feet smashed fiercely against the dome's surface, leaving a neat little imprint in the shape of his sandal-tips squarely in the spot where he met its solid surface. Luffy growled in frustration as his legs came flying back into place while he quickly fell back down to a solid stance.

Several times, as he was forced to constantly dodge the gleaming edges of her kunai, Luffy fought desperately to hit her; lashing out, he sent his arms stretching one hopeful blow after another, but she was constantly on the move, disappearing just before his crushing fists could make contact.

"Shit, she's going really fast now..." he grunted, just barely ducking in time to let another kunai go whizzing just beside his head. "I'm going to have trouble keeping up if I don't do something..."

Deterimination washing across his face, his eyes narrowed and his jaw clentched, Luffy had apparently decided to stand his ground. Without any apparent regard to his safety, he had stopped moving entirely, instead holding still as he bent forward, his head bowed down and his hands resting against his bent knees.

"Okay then, Crazy Lightning...I'm going to take you seriously, if you want."

As her kunai barrage continued, several more grazed across his skin, and a few more managed to hit solidly, one of them digging into his right shoulder and another in the curve of his hip.

"Now..." he continued, suddenly pushing down with his hands against his legs, the effort forcing a ripple of his rubbery flesh to move down their length, then come bouncing back up again. "...you're going to have trouble keeping up with me."

Flushed with a sudden wave of warmth and color, Luffy's fair skin was overtaken by a faint red hue, one that gained strength and spread across every inch of his body. His skin began to glisten, a light sheen visible across his arms and legs that glinted in the genuine sun.

"Get ready!" he shouted angrily. "Gear...Second!"

With the final word spoken, a countless number of tremendous bursts of bubbling steam violently erupted from Luffy's body, hissing thunderously as it streamed out from him like a series of geysers, then slowly hushing down to a constant simmering flow.

Just as Larxene appeared from her portal to throw another kunai, there was Luffy, having leapt straight towards her the very moment she appeared with speeds that made his earlier leaps and dashes look paltry by comparison. Hoping to catch her before she could throw, Luffy launched another of his quick stretching punches, this one so fast that it barely registered as more than a blur of motion before his arm had already returned to its normal length.

The sudden burst in speed caught her off-guard; where had it come from? She was pushing herself backwards and trying to throw at the same time, but, unprepared for anything close to the speeds she had been at being matched, Luffy's fists caught her dead-on.

She coughed up blood and was shot back through the portal, and for a while there was nothing again as she stayed hidden in the darkness, retching and catching her breath where the wind had been knocked out of her.

Damn him.

There was a noise like thunder and a flash of lightning all in one burst as she rocketed out of the portal with lightning on her heels. She couldn't move faster than she was now, using her lightning to up her speed. Her kunai went flying ahead of her as she darted around the dome.

Luffy actually snickered lightly, a wicked little smile curling across his lips as he felt his attack sink in against her. There was just something especially satisfying about fighting fire with fire, or in this case, speed for speed. With steam still pouring out from his body, escaping in faint, wispy jets from various pores, he stood calmly amid the storm and waited, patiently, for Larxene to emerge again.

She came, the thunderous sound of her appearance ringing in his ears; roaring angrily, his enraged and empassioned shouts bellowing out from the pit of his stomach, Luffy leapt from the ground with such force that the dome surface splintered lightly beneath where his feet had been stationed.

He followed quickly and closely behind her, immediately forcing himself to close any gap between them with powerful strides and breathtaking leaps. In midflight then, hoping to bring her to an immediate stop before her quickness could prolong the fight any further, Luffy broke off his chase, darting away to put a faint amount of distance between them.

Sharply tensing his body, letting the layers of muscles burst through the surface of his reddened skin, Luffy flexed his arms, then tossed them both straight back behind him. They seemed to stretch on for miles, growing thinner, longer, even quivering visibly from being forced to grow so dangerously taut. Behind them, his hands were opened, with fingers lightly curled above the flat surface of his palms. "Gomu gomu nooooooooo..."

As she streaked across the air, a dazzling trail of lightning arching in her wake, Luffy watched carefully, taking aim before suddenly exploding from his stance and soaring straight towards her. His arms came springing forward with him, with his hands squared together like a pair of battering rams closing in at horrendous speeds. If a single punch was able to cause so much damage, what kind of train wreck would come from this, Luffy's favorite finishing blow?

"...JET BAZOOKA!"

Larxene glanced back, eyes wide, as she found Luffy gaining on her. Dammit, where had this speed come from? She growled and made more haphazard turns, hoping to throw him off, and perhaps get behind him.

When he began yelling--she couldn't quite make out the words--she knew something was coming, and she squeezed open a portal with the last of her expendable energy and crashed in through it just as Luffy's arms threatened to catch up with her.

Hidden in darkness once more, she could only lay there, gasping for air to feed overworked muscles and aching limbs. But then she stood--wobbled, and groped in the air a few times, but still, she stood.

She would snatch, if not victory, something out of this mess. She opened the portal enough to allow her to speak.

"I guess you passed the test," she said, though each word was labored.

Luffy's voice rang out as he zeroed in on his target, a monstrous yell like gravel being ground apart beneath a terrible, crushing force. He was directly behind her, only for a precious split-second, and though the lightning pouring out of her, propelling her desperately forward, couldn't hurt him, he could still feel the intensity, the heat of it, licking at his face and his eyes from being so dangerously close.

Then, during the moment of hopeful impact, his arms carried straight through where she had been with massive power. The attack was over immediately, but despite its speed, it thrust through the air so strongly that a channeled gust of air visibly erupted and flew off through the sky.

Having been in motion, Luffy hit the ground skidding, with steam still coming away from him. He turned, though only his head, towards the tiny opening Larxene had created, shooting a beastly glare towards the haunting sound of her voice.

"Ehhh, what was that?" he asked, almost condescendingly. Her was this 'Larxene' that everyone had spoken of; the Larxene who constantly pestered the Paixaoan community with her lofty insults and teasing remarks; the Larxene that supposedly had even left a poor, defenseless little penguin for dead, helpless and pinned by its stubby little limbs to a wall. "You're testing me?"

Gingerly, she stepped out of the portal, though she left it open just in case she needed to make a quick exit. Her movements, simple as they were, shot pain throughout her body. It was harder to ignore after the heat of battle had cooled.

"To see if you have what it takes," she continued. "There are so many who are all bark and no bite."

She was more serious than one might have expected. She was simply too tired to bother with fake emotions.

"There's so much evil in Paixao... You have to test everyone, you know."

Luffy fell silent for a moment or two after she revealed herself; he wasn't sure just what to make of the situation. Although she was standing, her movements hardly seemed very confident, but if she felt at all threatened, why would she step out into the open, rather than stay safe and hidden away? He watched her, looking obviously curious, but kept his guard up and kept the steam pouring out of his body coming.

"I've got plenty of bite," he replied strongly. "That's why I came here."

Luffy, still under the impression that he had been brought to Paixao to serve a purpose, had always assumed it was this Organization that he was intended to fight and destroy, but it seemed as if every person he had met had a different angle to sell him.

The Organization is bad. No, the Mayor is the bad one; no, the Mayor is dead. No, this person isn't dressed like the Organization, but he is part of the group? No, this person is part of the Resistance. No, there's another group dressed like the Organization, but they're different? No, this person is dressed like the Organization, but he isn't?

Considering all his options was a large and confusing task. Being a 'bad guy' himself, one who fought constantly against the law (albeit a corrupt law), this new world presented the terrible task of figuring out just which side was the right one to follow. Suddenly, Luffy 'powered down', returning to a more normal state where the gleaming reddness in his skin faded and the jets of steam faded away.

Just when he seemed to calm down, however, his features grew intense and angry again. "Nnngh, is that really true? I know there's a bunch of bastards running around, but I don't know who's telling me the truth!"

With strong, methodical steps, he approached Larxene, his fists balled up as his arms swung at his sides. "If you're just trying to see who's strong enough to fight evil, why does everyone think you're evil? Give me a good reason to trust you, or I'll just flatten you myself!"

"It's my job to test people," Larxene continued, not backing down an inch as Luffy approached. "If someone is willing to face me despite my reputation, they would be willing to face just about any level of intimidation, yes?"

She put on a bit of a smile. "But I never expected my reputation to get quite this bad. Most of what I've been accused of I have not done. I think there's someone who looks like me wandering around."

Lowering his brows in an annoyed, rather grumpy sort of fashion, Luffy glanced off to the side avoidingly and tightly clentched his jaw. She did have a point, that if her task was to find was to drum up strong fighters, she would need have a strong standing herself.

He'd been told that Organization members were tricky, though. Could he really take anything that Larxene said at any value? Luffy opened his mouth to speak, raising an objecting finger, but stopped himself - thinking for a moment, all the times he had been warned about Larxene were times that he had originally come to suspect the person doing the warning.

The time he had come across Mickey: wearing that dark coat, standing in front of the wounded Prinny along with that snide young woman; they'd immediately passed the blame away, even though they were the first on the scene.

Repliku wasn't much better, kidnapping that girl right in front of him, then later trying to convince him that it was all to keep her safe? It made a very loose sense then, but now, it just seemed all too convenient.

Looking again like he had something to say, Luffy opened his mouth, following through this time. "This is really confusing..." he groaned, placing a hand against his stomach, "...and I can't think on an empty stomach." He hadn't even mentioned the fact that several of her kunai were still sticking out of his body, and many wounds he had suffered were still open and bleeding; no, his first and only concern was filling up his belly. "I really gotta figure this out."

Luffy was strange, that was certain. But at least he appeared somewhat gullible; that he would consider her story at all proved that. But she could hardly go out to lunch with him. She tilted her head. She might as well continue with her tale, and let him mull it over on his own.

"I'm part of a group who has infiltrated the Organization," she said; no need to try to paint them all in a good light. "I work as a spy and help with recruitment. There are many forces at work within this city."

There, that sounded nice and ominous, right?

"Oooh-ho! I see! That's really cool!" Luffy, chiming back in a genuinely enthused voice, began to smile for the first time since he had arrived. He seemed remarkably impressed even, suddenly seeing Larxene as some daring spy, a brave sheep in the midst of the wolf's pack. "So, that's that then," he remarked admiringly.

Reaching up to his hat, Luffy took hold of it by its brim, then lowered it off of his head, letting it hang from his neck to his shoulders by the gentle chord attached to it. He seemed more casual now, less battle-ready especially, with the real-world wind blowing gently through his wild, black hair.

"That must be why you always act so bad," he deduced aloud, sounding more calm and mature now, however strangely outgoing he was to a perfect stranger. "You have to make it seem like you're one of them. It's a good plan."

Larxene nodded as Luffy ran with the story on his own. This was far easier than she thought it would have been. "But then some people started really ruining my reputation."

She pouted sportingly. "All this talk of torturing people and enjoying it, I know they're just trying to make me entirely untrustworthy. And I guess it's working."

She seemed even more disappointed and sad at this--but inside she thrilled at how simple this was.

Matching her disappointment, Luffy's featured hardened crossly; it just didn't sit right with him to see someone trying to do such good work to be treated so poorly. It was enough to make his fists clentch up tightly again. "That sounds like something they'd do! Dammit, those sneaky bastards..." he muttered angrily.

Well, now he knew better than to listen to all those rumor mills. There was too much gossip floating around in that silly box than he cared for anyway. "So then, I'll help you out. You probably know more about what's going on than I do, so if there's anything I need to do, anybody I need to fight, you let me know!" Luffy grinned challengingly, adding, "I'll definitely send them flying!"

Larxene smiled at Luffy's enthusiasm. "That's very kind of you~" she said, perking up. "I'll be sure to keep you updated when I can."

Perhaps this hadn't been a complete washout, at least. Her wounds still stung, and she would need to spend some time healing, but she had taken the very man who caused the injuries and tricked him.

Not everything ended badly.

Larxene vs. Luffy [Complete]

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