task:

Krummes Holz gibt auch gerades Feuer.

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Items: central system 2UP, 2x energy pistols 2UP, dynamic capsules 2UP.

Ro’s feet clacked against the marble floor as she made it into the back hall of the palace. The war had ended yesterday, and now, it was time for the cleanup. She knew what to expect. At the moment, she had lost all her powerful friends due to playing both sides of the field so freely. But regardless, she walked freely into the room that was serving as the alternate throne room after the damage to the palace yesterday. Passing armed soldiers, the remnants of the kingsguard who, lucky enough for them, had not made it to the throne room in time to be baked alive. Stepping forward, they began to pat her down. Ro did not resist, understanding the score. She couldn’t help throwing in a comment edgewise though. “Is this how you treat your generals?” Their eyes watched her, unblinking as she proceeded on. There was a twinge in her stomach. She was so close. All that was left were her two co-conspirators who she had taken advantage of. Striding into the hall, she was initially struck by how empty it was. Other than the guards, only a pair of men graced this room. Rokuju approached the makeshift throne, the late king’s cousin, Uron sat in it, tapping the gold plated armrest restlessly. Another, older and wispy man stood behind him, leaning over the new king like a shadow with separation anxiety.

Ro stopped a good five metres away. “You two certainly didn’t waste any time.” It hadn’t taken Uron very long to get over his cousin’s death and sit in his favourite seat. “Now, I believe I have been summoned so that I may be rewarded for my treaso- *cough* gallant leadership?” The initial deal had been that she would help these two take power and she would remain an underling with a large payday once the deal was done. However she knew how snakes like these men thought. Loose ends got trimmed, and killing someone was a lot cheaper than paying them. Not only that, Rokuju had made a powerplay with the previous king, setting things up so that he would instate her as acting general. This was not the sort of power grab that any good underling should do. These two had a deal with the hamiltonians, and had engineered the conflict that had just happened. Just as Joedat had stated yesterday, Alabasta’s gates were supposed to be open, letting them ride in and then capture it. From there, the crown would be handed over to Uron. She was sure that in turn, Hamilton would have been rewarded greatly. Unfortunately for them, Rokuju’s own agenda had lead her to assert herself into the situation, throwing a spanner into the works. So yes, the pair had managed to scramble up power in the aftermath, but their leadership was iffy at best. The nobility of the land had been ripped up into an unrecognisable mess, the sociopolitical structure in tatters. They would need time to cement their position. And Rokuju had proven herself to be a very dangerous individual to have around. She was not been expecting her reward when she had come in today.

Yanus, the old king’s advisor, stepped forward from behind the throne. “Don’t be so mean, Miss Veil.” He sighed, with a small condescending smile adorning his lips. “It was quite unexpected for you to put on that little show for the king, and to grab the general’s position.” She got the sense that he was going to continue on his pompous tangent but at that moment he was interrupted by Uron. The new king stood with a jerky motion.
“You were supposed to let them in you fool! You almost ruined this for all of us. I knew you couldn’t handle that job!” He shouted, a little too loud for comfort. “Now now my friend, what is done is done. It all worked out in the end and you are the King of Alabasta. Tis true that all our years of planning went out the window and because of that, many of our people died. But we cannot change that now.” His eyes flicked over to the king. “All we can do now is charge this traitor for treason.” Uron stood, clenching his fists and nodded.
“Guards! Arrest General Veil!” His inevitable order rung out.

Ro didn’t move as half a dozen of the elite guard came into the room, striding towards her. Instead, she spoke. “You don’t have a wife or any family left do you Uron? Who does that leave next in line then?” She looked pointedly at Yanus.
“You’re too much trouble, Veil. You should have probably kept that pretty mouth of yours shut.” He spat between clenched jaws. It seemed like Uron was just not wise enough to suspect his dear friend and accomplice to betray him. However Ro could tell it was not an ‘if’ but a ‘when’. The new king spoke as the guards approached.
“General Elena Veil, for the crime of treason, I sentence you to death!” Yes, Ro had to agree that it was about time for Elena Veil to die. Unfortunately for these two geezers, there was no such person as Elena Veil.

One guard from either side was reaching out to grab Ro by the shoulder. She was out of moves, or rather, there was now only one clear path. Her arms flicked out, and her pistols filled her hands. What came next was a bit of a surprise. Her wrists were grabbed and a metal gauntleted arm was swung up to smash her in the face. They were fast, and they had responded to an attack that had come out of the blue. She was sure she hadn’t shown any signs of aggression beforehand. Not only that, they had pat her down previously and known she had not had a weapon. Now that they saw the threat, they had acted swiftly in counteracting it. The tables had been turned on her and now she was the one being attacked. Almost on reflex, Rokuju pulsed a sphere of light out from her core, enough to push back the two guards at her side off their feet. By the time the sphere had reached the other guardsmen, they had reared back their own attacks, smashing through the light barrier with their pure strength. Damn, she had underestimated them. These six men were the strongest this island had to offer, she had to remember that. Even she couldn’t disregard that fact.

“Wh- what the hell was that!” A bewildered gasp came from the king as he took a few steps back.
“Your Majesty, please retreat to somewhere safer while we bring her under control!” One of the guards warned. Yanus and Uron did not need to be warned twice, and began falling back to the back of the hall. Ro looked at the four men and two women who now circled her. Each one was clad with fine steel armour. They looked of various ages, ranging from mid twenties to mid forties. They each had the same stern and focussed expression, their eyes tuned in on her. One of the women drew a pair of daggers that were almost long enough to be called short swords. She handled them with a light yet controlled grip. The oldest man drew a greatsword from the scabbard on his back, the sharpened metal singing as it was brought to bear. Another male stepped forward, shrugging a shield off his back and onto his left arm. His right arm drew a spiked ball and chain flail. As if they were all coordinated, a slick black sheen covered their weapons. Sharp eyes watched her from out behind the shield as they advanced.

She raised her pistols, shooting a dynamic capsule in the direction of each swordsman. She then activated the flashbang in their direction, trying to slow them down while she looked for more options. The flail barer advanced, swinging his weapon up and around at her. Ro shuffled back out of range of the arc and lit him up with yellow lasers. The thin lines of light flared out at him, into the shield, lower half of his body and even the floor. The lasers bounced off the floor, giving the angle to bounce up and underneath the shield. The metal that clad the warrior had been damaged quite badly from attack, but it still seemed to keep it’s integrity. Surprising, as her lasers would usually be able to cut through steel. The shield had reflected some of her beams, which had ricocheted out into the nearest guards. Ro took this chance to duck out of the centre of the circle while the guards were gathering themselves. They would have dealt with devil fruit users before, even if they didn’t know which exact one they were facing. Maybe they would even guess that Rokuju’s flashbang invention was a product of her fruit too. After her second of relief, Ro had let a few of her capsules scatter on the ground from her back pocket. The flail wearing guard shouted out a warning. “Be wary! Protect the king but take care!”

Three of the guards, including the two swordsmen looked like they had been hit hard by the flashbang, still wavering and gathering themselves. The pair that had hung back previously now turned and rushed at Rokuju. They were experienced veterans, but she had a few tricks they hadn’t seen yet. She jumped back as they ran at her, and activated the incendiary alchemiser right when they were over the top of her capsules. All the surfaces near them turned into the highly volatile thermite which was then lit, searing them in their armour. Two screams, one male and one female filled the air as even their skin was turned into burning metal. Ro watched in amazement as the tore off the plate armour from their skin and crawled out of the fire. It was a gruesome scene, the pair struggling to dig out the burning stuff from their skin before their faces started to liquify. Their screams turned to moans and gurgles as they collapsed. Ro raised her pistol, firing once into the soup that used to shape their features, putting them out of their misery. She had to be impressed with their will to live and strength of perseverance, but even these elite soldiers who could utilise armament haki could not escape their own skin in time to be cooked alive. “No! What the hell!” The old swordsman yelled as his eyes focused on the nightmarish scene. It was in bad taste, Ro would have to agree, but it was very effective. There was nothing that lowered morale like a picture of true terror happening to your friends, right in front of you.
“Yes, it seems you have just realised.” Ro raised her voice so that the two old men at the back of the hall would hear. She half turned to see Uron puking out of pure disgust for the scene he had just witnessed. “The throne room was devoured in sparking flames just like these. There was a bit of an ...accident yesterday.” Her face was gravely serious. She wasn’t one to joke about death, but it was all for the effect of intimidating the pair of snakes.
“Wh- what the hell are you?” She heard Yanus squeak from the back of the room. It looked like it was working, judging by the ‘what’ instead of the ‘who’.

“Fiend!” The swordswoman screeched as she circled around to Rokuju again, the rest of the squad on her tail. She spun and slashed out blades of air in quick succession, electricity crackling through the space between the two women. White arcs of burning hot electricity came streaking towards Rokuju. Ro dodged into the air, the crackling sparks singing the hairs on her arm as she barely made room. She would do to wrap this up as quickly as she could, the constant pressure that these guards exerted was the most stressful battle she had ever been in. She raised a hand, directing energy from herself out to condense into a ball around the swordswoman. As her attack bore down on the guard, the flail wielding man stepped up, putting his shield in between Rokuju and the woman. Unfortunately, this was an attack that came from all sides. The light condensed, a ball of white energy sizzling the pair. The male collapsed, his armour falling off his body to reveal scorched and blackened flesh. He fell down, what remained of his skull crashing into his shield. The swordswoman still stood, steam wafting up off of her body. The protection gained from her armour, the self sacrifice of her cohort and her own resilience had kept her from death. But she stood there, without her eyes focussing on anything, staring into the mid space in front of her. “R- Reynard? What happened, I can’t see. Dammit” She clutched at her face, rubbing her eyes. The intense light must have burned out her retinas. Coupled with the previous flashbang, she probably wouldn’t be seeing for a while.

The remaining two men stepped forward, so that they covered the impaired guard. “I’ll create an opening. You do what you do.” The old guard ordered in hushed tones. The he rushed at Rokuju, his massive greatsword swinging downwards in an overhead arc. Ro skipped backwards, giving herself plenty of room. What she didn’t expect was the sword to continue downwards and smack the ground with an earth shattering clap. The ground erupted in a fissure which cracked over to Rokuju, leaving uneven ground for her back foot. Upon landing, she jarred her knee and collapsed backwards over it, landing on her tailbone. She only had enough time for a wince before she saw the last guard up in the air. There was this purple crystalline substance that had sprouted from his feet and seemed to have carried him upwards and overhead. Then he spun around, unleashing a barrage of crystal spikes on the woman below. Ro would yell with effort as she drew power from within, letting out another, more powerful sphere of light from her core, which smashed into the hail of crystal, pushing them away with the two guards. Ro took a ragged breath as she stood to look at the destruction. Fire, electricity, fissures, crystal spikes and lasers had taken their toll on the royal hall. The marks of battle were drawn fresh in the marble, despite the fight only taking a couple of minutes. She heard scrabbling from the back of the hall, as the two leaders decided that the fight was not going so well and that they should make haste with escaping. The concussive force of the barrier seemed to have knocked the guards dazed. Now was her time to end this.

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She rushed over there, powering her lazers again and filling the two guards with holes. The began to react as they realised they were being attacked. The crystal user had almost got to his feet before his leg had been cut clean through by a laser at the knee. He fell down screaming for a second, until another laser came through the grill on his visor and into the back of his head. The older guy had not reacted as quickly and was dead before he had fully come back to his senses.

Now- what was this? Ro turned around to see the blinded female guard, still clutching her pair of long daggers. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she stood still with a concentrated look on her face. “On the honour of the Kingsguard, I will finish you here.” She snarled. Ro took one step forward and she reacted, diving forward with her blades across her in an X, accelerating with a geppo type skill. What fortitude to be able to calm herself enough to continue on with the fight, going off of sound and observation haki only. Ro understood what a shame these deaths were, men and women serving to the death dutifully. However, it had to be done for Ro to fulfill her ambitions. Ro turned her lasers towards the woman, slicing and dicing across her body. Ro caught the woman and she died in her arms.
“You have brought great honour to the Kingsguard. Rest now.” Ro lowered her body to the ground. She turned to face the two weasels that were trying their best to scurry away. She was in front of them in a flash, standing in their escape path. Uron looked at the blood that stained Ro’s body and yelped, stumbling back. “You two don’t deserve such loyalty.” Ro stated, a little wary from her scuffle. Yanus looked at her, wide eyed and spoke.
“Elena, please. Look here. We will- we’ll get you whatever you need, okay? It was wrong of us to turn on you. I see that now.” Ro looked at the pitiful man, loading a lead bullet into her pistol. “N-no please-” She raised it and fired point blank, dropping him to the floor. She looked over to Uron who had begun quietly blubbering under his golden crown.
“My name isn’t Elena Veil, it is Rokuju Vinsmoke and as of now, the Kingdom of Alabasta is part of the Germa 66 Empire.” she flicked the barrel of her pistol in his direction. “Now, are you going to be of use to me?” The king would nod eagerly, seeing his chance to survive.

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~exit~
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