Hunting Decepticons
Summary: RWBY/Transformers Prime Crossover. She was supposed to be dead. Cinder had pretty much erased her from existence after all, turning her body into nothing but ash. And yet, here she is, waking up in the back of a red Dodge Challenger with bull horns on the hood. The Decepticons better watch out, because Pyrrha Nikos has arrived. (She might be slightly OOC due to minimal familiarity with RWBY, I apologize if that is the case.)
1. New Partners
Story Start: A RWBY Verse, Top Of Beacon Academy
Normally, an arrow to the ankle wouldn't have stopped Pyrrha from continuing the fight, no matter how debilitating the injury. But normally, said arrow wasn't rapidly spreading what felt like literal fire up her veins, burning away at every nerve in the rapidly growing affected area, sending an unbelievable amount of pain through her system. After only moments of being shot, the fire was already up her entire leg and spreading beyond. Still, for all of her excruciating agony, Pyrrha did her best not to cry out and keep fighting. But even the act of moving from her knees onto her feet was proving impossible, but not because of limitations of her will, but rather limitations of time.
If all Cinder had done was fire the arrow then left, Pyrrha would have certainly managed to hold out for the last few moments before Ruby made it up the side of the tower. Unfortunately, the Maiden Usurper either wasn't feeling sadistic enough or just wanted to be efficient. Either way, she strode over and around to stand in front of Pyrrha and formed her bow and arrow a second time, drawing from only three feet away.
Smirking at her prey, Cinder said "It's unfortunate that you were promised a power that was never truly yours. But take comfort in knowing that I will use it in ways that you could never fathom."
Pyrrha grunted and straightened up as much as she could as she defyingly glared at her and said "I wouldn't want to fathom how to use it the ways you're planning to."
"No, you probably wouldn't." Cinder acknowledged before she released her arrow.
As the burning weapon struck her chest, Pyrrha let out one last gasp of pain and looked down. Confusingly, the sight of her body beginning to break apart starting at the new wound didn't alarm her as much as she would have thought. The last thing she heard before she completely disintegrated was the shouted denial of Team RWBY's leader as she called out "No, Pyrrha!"
And then, nothing.
Scene Change: A Transformers Prime Verse
Despite all expectations, Pyrrha found herself opening her eyes with a groan. Looking around, she found herself in the passenger seat of a car that for some reason had bull horns on the front of its hood. Also for some reason, there was no one in the driver seat and the car was just standing by itself behind a large boulder with its engine cut off. A further scan of her surroundings showed that there was a road on the other side of the boulder but except for the vehicle she was in Pyrrha couldn't detect any metal with her Semblance so either the driver of the vehicle was on the other side of the rock and not wearing metal or she really was alone in the strange area. But more importantly…
Groaning again as she put a hand on her head, Pyrrha asked herself "How did I wind up here?"
She has no problem admitting she was startled enough to jump in her seat as a voice coming from the car's speakers said "That's what I would like to know pretty lady. After all, it's not every day a human just appears in one of my seats while I'm on patrol."
"Who?" Pyrrha started to ask as she looked around in confusion only to yelp as the car around her began shifting and in a flurry of moving metal she found herself sitting in the palm of a large red robot that had horns on either side of his head. Pyrrha could only stare as the robot cocked his head and said "Why don't we start with something that you should be able to answer. What's your name human?"
"Pyrrha Nikos, and you?" Pyrrha asked. After all, this thing may have been made out of metal, but the intelligence, and more importantly, curiosity in the robot's face showed that whatever else could be said about him, this thing was clearly self aware.
Smirking, the robot said "The name's Cliffjumper kid."
"Cliffjumper." Pyrrha said, testing the strange name before she cocked her head and said "Not to be rude Cliffjumper, but what are you?" After all, while Remnant was full of weapons that could shift forms and Atlas had plenty of robotic tech, she had never heard anything about robots that could turn into vehicles so well that no one would be able to guess what they actually were.
"Well, that could take some explaining." Cliffjumper said, settling into a crossed leg seating position against the boulder and setting Pyrrha on his right knee. Pyrrha imitated his stance as Cliffjumper began explaining about Cybertronians and how they came to be on the planet Earth. Earth, not Remnant. It seemed that Pyrrha was even more lost than she had originally thought.
Time Skip: One Year Later
Cliffjumper was rolling down a country road with Pyrrha behind his wheel, though if one looked closer they would have seen that while her hands were on the wheel, her feet were kept well away from the pedals. Pyrrha was no longer wearing her armor, which would have drawn more than a few odd looks and instead was wearing jeans and a red torso t shirt with blue sleeves and a golden W on its front with the words "Amazonian Badass" under it, a shirt that Cliffjumper had talked her into buying. As the pair traveled down the road, Pyrrha had a smile on her face as she listened to a conversation between her partner and his other partner.
"So there I am on a lookout when out of nowhere these high beams light up my rearview. And then it hits me, I'm illegally parked!"
"Another parking ticket?"
"Better, the boot."
"Big metal tire clamp, impossible to remove."
"Bingo! The local police do their thing and I let them get all the way down the block. That's when I kick off my new shiny shoe and BANG!"
"New York's finest soil themselves."
Cliffjumper chuckled and said "You know me, Arcee, mess with Cliffjumper-"
"And you get the horns. You see, this is why Optimus decided you needed Pyrrha as a second partner Cliff, because when she's not around you just can't help getting into trouble."
Pyrrha giggled at that and Cliffjumper said "You say that like that's a bad thing."
"It is. You do recall that Autobot rule number one is 'Keep a low profile' right?" Arcee asked and both human and bot could swear that they actually saw a raised eyebrow in the tone of Arcee's voice.
"What can I say, scouting for Energon with no one but Pyrrha to talk with for hours at the time gets boring. There's only so many times we can play I Spy or License Plates before it gets boring. Heh, almost makes me miss the Decepticons."
"He does have a point there Arcee." Pyrrha said with a nod, not that the two wheeler could see it.
"Like Jasper Nevada's a party? Face it you two, with us Autobots having to hide and Pyrrha having to keep a lid on her abilities, we're alone where ever we travel on this rock."
Pyrrha let out a sigh and said "Sad but true. It's not like I can just start unlocking people's Aura left and right, no matter how much Special Agent Fowler and General Bryce would wish otherwise. This world's got enough problems without introducing what amounts to superpowers into the mix."
Anything that would have been further said was interrupted as Cliffjumper's dashboard screen began pinging and he said "I'm getting a signal."
"Need backup?" Arcee asked, her attention piqued by the interruption to the monotony of patrol.
"Nah, Pyrrha and I can handle it." Cliffjumper said easily before he turned off the road and half a minute later he skidded to a stop on the edge of a circular pit and at the sight of the crystals at the bottom said "We just found a whooole lot of Energon!"
"That ain't all we found Cliff, I'm picking up a massive amount of metal in the sky heading our way." Pyrrha said with a frown as she glanced back out of his driver seat window. She quickly hopped out and Cliffjumper transformed and turned to look upwards and seeing the massive ship appearing said "Decepticons."
Seeing one of the guns on the bottom of the hull turn towards them, Pyrrha's eyes widened and she shouted "MOVE!" Cliffjumper and her dove apart and Pyrrha used her semblance to yank her belt buckle along her flight path in order to get clear in time. Landing, she took quick note that Cliffjumper had been thrown into the pit but otherwise seemed fine. Turning her attention back to the ship, she frowned as a hatch opened and several Vehicon drones dropped out of the ship and landed heavily on the ground near her.
Most of the Vehicons ignored her, instead forming and pointing their blasters down at Cliffjumper, but one of them walked forward and bent down, clearly intending to take her prisoner. Pyrrha though didn't intend to be taken prisoner, and even as Cliffjumper was asking Arcee for the offered back up she was already moving. Leaping up onto the Vehicon's outstretched hand, Pyrrha ran up his arm, pulling out the Desert Eagle Fowler had been so generous to get for her. (And yes, she DID have a permit for it.) Reaching the head fast enough that the Vehicon hadn't even had time to realize that he had missed his grab, Pyrrha put the barrel of her gun right next to the vulnerable section where head met neck and fired three rounds. The .50 bullets only penetrated about six inches, but that was more than enough for Pyrrha who immediately used her Semblance to rip the bullets upwards and into the central processing unit of the Vehicon, aka it's brain pan. The Vehicon gave a single twitch before it toppled over, earning the attention of all of the other Vehicons who turned from Cliffjumper.
There was a moment of silence as the drones took in the surprising sight of a human somehow killing one of their own. A moment which Pyyrha took full advantage of as she used her Polarity Semblance to grip the closest still living drone, yanked him a foot in the air and then swung him in a wide arc that knocked all but two of the Vehicons off their feet. Cliffjumper joined the fight at that point, roaring up the pit wall in Challenger form and leaping into the air. Transforming in midair, he formed his blasters on both hands and shot the two still standing Vehicons putting them out of action. As he landed, the knocked over Vehicons got back on their feet and seeing him as the bigger threat, literally, began engaging Cliffjumper in hand to hand.
More visible target or not, any Cybertronian who ignored Pyrrha pays for that mistake. Pyrrha singled out the Vehicon closest to her and gripped it in her Semblance. Gritting her teeth, she glanced skyward at the still hovering ship and gave a flick of her hand. Immediately, the Vehicon shot skyward, screaming in surprised fear as he rushed headlong up to the ship and collided into its underside. Needless to say, when Vehicon went against Ship, Ship wins and the unlucky drone shattered to pieces. Pieces which Pyrrha then sent shooting back down into the fight at a speed comparable to a bullet which slammed into the rest of the Cons on the ground. And where her bullets barely penetrated, these fast traveling objects easily punctured the last few Vehicons' chassis and they all fell to the ground.
Cliffjumper gave the destruction around him a low whistle before he smirked at Pyrrha and said "Nice going partner." He then pouted and said "But couldn't you have left me more than just two of them?"
"Sorry." Pyrrha said with a smile before she turned her gaze upwards as the ship began rapidly pulling away. Cocking her head in confusion, she asked "Why are they running instead of shooting at us again?"
"Probably worried you'd do something to blow up their guns." Cliffjumper said as they watched the ship rapidly leave the area.
"Well they're not wrong on that." Pyrrha mused before bot and human's attention was turned to a glowing portal that appeared nearby and the five Autobots that came out with weapons out and ready.
"Hey Arcee, you guys completely missed the party." Cliffjumper said with a grin and a wave.
"Aw man!" Bulkhead said, his shoulders sagging, an action followed by Bumblebee as all of the Autobots turned their weapons back into their default hands.
Optimus strode over with Ratchet and said "Pyrrha, Cliffjumper, are the two of you alright?"
"Fine, not even a scratch. Honestly, I barely even had to do anything thanks to Pyrrha." Cliffjumper said with a grin and a hand gesture to his partner.
As the rest of the Autobots turned their gazes to Pyrrha, she gave a slightly embarrassed smile and said "Apparently my Semblance is rather effective against Decepticons."
Arcee snorted and said "Gee, who would have thought that magnetics would be a good weapon against giant robots." Shaking her head with a grin, she turned to the pit and let out a whistle as she said "Wow, look at all that Energon."
"Indeed, you two have done well in defending both yourselves and the Energon." Optimus said, giving them a nod of approval which they returned. After that, the six Autobots and Pyrrha began the process of removing said Energon from the area and back to their base over the next half hour. What could have been a disaster for the Autobots had turned into quite the windfall instead.
Scene Change: The Nemesis
Starscream growled to himself on the bridge as he muttered "I thought that humans were unable to combat Cybertronians. Clearly our information was wrong."
Behind him, Soundwave played an audio clip of a transmission he had recently gathered "Like Jasper Nevada's a party? Face it you two, with us Autobots having to hide and Pyrrha having to keep a lid on her abilities, we're alone where ever we travel on this rock."
"Sad but true. It's not like I can just start unlocking people's Aura left and right, no matter how much Special Agent Fowler and General Bryce would wish otherwise. This world's got enough problems without introducing what amounts to superpowers into the mix."
"Hm, so that human was an anomaly, that's reassuring." Starscream mused before he turned to face Soundwave and said "Send a team to this Jasper, Nevada. I want Arcee captured and brought here so that she may tell me more about this 'Pyrrha', as well as the location of the Autobots' base of course."
Soundwave nodded and Starscream turned back to view the forward screen as the communication's officer relayed his orders.
Scene Change: Jasper Nevada
With the return of the Decepticons after three years of there being no sign of them, Optimus was rightly worried about any possible Decepticon activity in the area of their base. So the team was spread out around the surrounding fifty miles doing a thorough search, which included the town the former missile silo that was now their base was located in close proximity to.
As Arcee drove down a street, her side mirrors picked up two cars turning on the road after her and she ground out to herself "Great, they ARE in the area."
Using her smaller form, Arcee was able to put enough cars between her and the Cons that she felt it was safe to pull into the parking lot of a burger joint. Popping her kick stand, she said "Take five Sadie." and her hologram faded out while she contacted the others and said "Arcee here, two Decepticons spotted in town."
"Understood, maintain vehicular mode cover for as long as possible, we are enroute." Optimus ordered.
"Gotcha." Arcee said before falling silent as a teenager came out of the restaurant.
The teen stopped his walk to his bike when his phone rang and he pulled it out flipping it open as he said "Hey mom, I just got off work." Frowning at what his mom said on the other end, he said "No, I'm not going to the dance. Experience suggests I should never cut a rug." He then smirked as he said "Unless I'm installing carpet."
'Smooth kid.' Arcee thought, a small bit of reluctant amusement flitting through her mind at that.
Giving an exasperated sigh, the teen said "Be careful? Seriously? This is Jasper." He then laid eyes on Arcee and an awestruck look passed over his face. Scratch that, make it lovestruck as he impulsively said lowly to himself "I love you." Seeming to snap himself back to awareness, he said into his phone "Uh, I love you too, mom, I gotta go."
Hanging up his phone, he walked over to Arcee and said "Hello, beautiful. Where have you been all my life?" Idly running his hand along Arcee's saddle he grinned and said "Nice." Straddling her, he said "It may take a few K.O Paychecks, but I am gonna own a ride like you someday."
'I highly doubt you'll find one like me smooth talker.' Arcee thought in amusement. Honestly, the way some humans could see simple machines as objects with their own personalities was a selling point for their race in her books. Still, as amusing as it was, she was getting anxious. Those Cons were still in the area after all. The longer she stayed in one spot, the more likely she was about to be spotted again.
Unfortunately, another human, this one a female teenager was nearby and had seen what the boy was doing. Sounding slightly awkward, she asked "Are you talking to your motorcycle?"
Turning flustered, the boy said "My motorcycle? No, I mean, yes, yes! It's mine, but I-I'm not talking- It was to you! I-Iam. How's things, Sierra? Take you for a spin sometime?"
'Graceful recovery when surprised is NOT one of this guy's strong points.' Arcee thought in amusement before she mentally 'stiffened' as her mirrors picked up two purple cars turning at the far end of the parking lot and thought 'Aw, scrap.'
"You know my name?" Sierra asked surprised and slightly weirded out.
"Uh, yeah, we have Chemistry and Home Room together. The name's Jack, Jack Darby?" Jack said with a cocked head.
"Oh." Sierra said, now sounding slightly embarrassed that she hadn't actually noticed Jack during said classes.
Before their conversation could get any further though, high beams snapped on, illuminating the two kids and Arcee. As the two Decepticons roared towards them, Arcee thought to herself 'Right, time's up!' Suddenly revving, she popped her front tire and spun around, Jack letting out a loud yell of surprise before he hung on for dear life as Arcee tore out of the burger joint like a bat out of hell. As she fled down the street, she called out "Do not let go!"
"Who said that?!" Jack asked, completely freaked out.
After two hundred yards, Arcee made a sharp turn into a set of connected alleyways and screeched to a stop. As Jack hastily got off, he asked "What are you?"
Turning her front wheel to him, she said "Let me give you some advice kid, start running, drop me from your memory, and never mention this to anyone, got it?"
"Got it." Jack said before he took off down the left connecting alley. Arcee continued straight just as the Cons followed them in.
Seeing one of the cars turn left after the teen, Arcee let out a sharp "Scrap!" Before popping her front wheel again in a sharp turn, quickly charging the Con that had followed her and drove over it to get back to the intersection. Hearing Jack yell out "I don't even know her!" had her accelerating as she leapt over the Con and called out "Hop on!" Soon as Jack was on her, she accelerated again and shot out of the alleyway onto the street and made her way for the highway.
As red blaster bolts bracketed them, Jack let out a cry of alarm and hunkered down with his hands over his head as he asked "Why are those guys shooting at us?!"
"There's no us kid, and they ain't guys either, just hang on!" Arcee said, accelerating even more as they entered the highway. As they shot down the highway, Bumblebee came up on a merger behind the cars and pit maneuvered one of the Cons into another.
Seeing this, Jack asked "Friend of yours?"
"Family." Arcee said before she spotted a closed off portion of the road for construction work on a bridge and said "Hang on kid."
"What? Whoa!" Jack asked then yelled as Arcee rushed down the side of the embankment before leaping in the air over the concrete side and landing in the middle of the drainage channel.
"Whoa." A young kid said in awe from where he had been sitting against the wall of the channel, a remote control in his hands and a small rc car in front of him.
"You have no idea." Jack said, quickly getting off of Arcee.
Before anything else could be said, the two Cons came barreling down the embankment and as they drove off of the concrete portion transformed in midair with blasters already out. Arcee transformed behind Jack and stepped around him as she narrowed her eyes and said "This ends here Cons."
She dashed forward, avoiding the blaster shots the Cons sent at her and jump kicked one Con in the face knocking him to the ground before she laid a series of punches on the other's face. Unfortunately, all that did was push the Con's face to the side and when it looked back at Arcee, the band of glass that covered its optics glowed a brighter red than before. The other Con then started firing and Arcee backflipped away from the pair but a shot hit her and she tumbled to the ground groaning.
As the Cons walked over towards her though, Bumblebee, who had been pit maneuvered himself a little earlier, drove off the bridge transforming as he dropped and landed right on top of one of the Cons and punched the other in the face hard enough to knock him back. He stepped off of his landing cushion only to stiffen as he heard a crunch under his feet. Looking down and lifting his foot up, he saw the crushed car and turning to the boys made an apologizing sound.
"No problem, really." The younger boy said only for him and Jack to wince as Bumblebee got blasted back by a blaster bolt. The Cons moved to put their blasters at Bumblebee from point blank range and the kid yelled out "Leave him alone!" Gulping when the Cons turned their blasters towards him, he meekly asked "Please?"
"Bad call." Jack said and as one of the cons started walking towards them pulled the kid after him and shouted "Come on! Come on!" They ran along the embankment wall until they reached an opening which held a drainage pipe and quickly scrambled in. The pursuing drone reached in and almost managed to grab Jack only to fall short as the drone was yanked away.
Jack and the kid stopped to look back only to see Bumblebee's face appeared as he said something to which the kid replied "Thank you."
Putting his hand on the kid's shoulders, Jack said "Don't look back."
"What did we just see?" The kid asked as Jack pushed him into walking again.
"No idea, and I'm not sure I want to find out." Was his reply as the two continued moving down the pipe.
Back outside, Bumblebee was thrown back to Arcee's position by the pair of Cons ganging up at him. But before the fight could continue, the sound of engines revving from behind the Cons had them turning. Cliffjumper did his vehicle form's model proud as he charged in at seventy five miles per hour down the channel before he suddenly transformed, doing a somersault before he came up on his feet in a throwing motion launching Pyrrha at the Cons. The action surprised the Cons so much that they didn't react in time before Pyrrha landed on the face of the Con on the right and slapped her hands on his face. The Con gave one full body twitch as Pyrrha's polarity twisted the circuits inside his brain pan out of shape before toppling over. The left Con got taken out an instant later by Cliffjumper's shot burning a hole into his head.
Chuckling as he walked over, Cliffjumper smirked down at his human partner and said "Nicely done there little lady."
"You weren't too bad yourself there cowboy." Pyrrha played along with a smile.
As Bumblebee and Arcee walked over to join them, there was the sound of revving engines again and the group looked down the opposite way to see Bulkhead come roaring in. Transforming and skidding to a stop, he said "Oh come on, I missed the fight again?!"
"That's what you get for choosing off road first and speed second big guy." Arcee said with a smirk, Bumblebee chirping in laughing agreement causing Bulkhead to pout which in turn set Pyrrha off, the redhead raising a hand to her mouth as she giggled.
Scene Change: Autobot Outpost Omega One
Optimus frowned as he listened to his fighters' report about the engagement, more specifically at the fact that two boys had witnessed the end. Turning away from his station, he said "If the Decepticons are actively targeting us then anyone perceived as our ally will be at grave risk. Bring them in."
The Autobots and Pyrrha nodded and the Huntress said "Tomorrow's Friday so they should be at the school tomorrow, we can get them when it lets out."
Optimus nodded and that was that.
Scene Change: Jasper High, The Next Day
Even with all of her training, Pyrrha Nikos was still a high school aged girl. Agent Fowler and Optimus had both insisted that she continued her education. A little bit of legal forgery on Unit E's part had Pyrrha gaining a background as a home school student who had to join the normal education system due to unspecified extenuating circumstances involving her parents leaving the country for a while.
She was a fairly good student but she obviously had a weak spot in US History. Unfortunately, this meant that Pyrrha was waylaid from approaching the two boys by the teacher of her last class asking her to stay behind after the bell rang to discuss a paper that she had turned in yesterday. It wasn't a necessarily long discussion, but by the time she exited the building fifteen minutes later a third child had seen the bots, a Japanese exchange student no less.
After being told what had happened by her partner, Pyrrha sighed and muttered "Murphy must be laughing himself sick right now."
"Probably, he's a jerk like that." Cliffjumper said, though amusement was easily heard in his voice as he turned over his engine and the pair pulled out of the parking lot and made their way out of the town. They caught up with Bumblebee and Arcee soon enough and followed them back to base.
As they pulled into the main room and the humans dismounted, Ratchet looked down at them and said "I thought that there were two."
"Haven't you heard? Humans multiply." Arcee said dryly.
"I'm Raf." The younger boy said.
"I'm Miko." The transfer student said, running over to Bulkhead and asked "Who are you?"
"Bulkhead." The Wrecker answered.
Gasping, Miko started rapid firing chattering as she asked "Are you a car? I bet you're a truck, a monster truck! Do you like heavy metal? How much do you weigh? Ever used a wrecking ball for a punching bag?" At that point, Bulkhead looked quite lost.
"So if you guys are robots, who made you?" Raf asked.
"Oh, puh-lease." Ratchet said with a scoff.
The sound of thumping footsteps had the three turning around to see Optimus. The big guy looked down at them and said "We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron. Also known as Autobots."
"Why are you here?" Jack asked.
"To protect your planet from the Decepticons." Optimus answered.
"The jokers that tried to bump us off last night." Arcee explained.
"Oh-kay, why are they here?" Jack asked again.
Kneeling down, Optimus said "A fair question, Jack. In part they are here because our planet is uninhabitable, ravaged by centuries of civil war."
"Why were you fighting a war?" Raf asked.
"For most, over control of our world supply of energon, the fuel and life-blood of all Autobots and Decepticons alike. The combat was fierce, and endured for centuries. In the beginning, I fought alongside one who I considered a brother. But in war, ideals can be corrupted. And it was thus that Megatron lost his way." Optimus explained.
"Is there going to be a quiz?" Miko asked with a yawn.
Pyrrha frowned at the other girl but before she could say anything about this being important, Jack asked "So what does this Megatron, or any of this have to do with us?"
"Megatron has not been seen or heard from in sometime. But if his return is imminent as I fear, it could be catastrophic." Optimus said.
Scene Change: The Nemesis
There was a beeping sound coming from Soundwave as he approached Starscream. The Commander of the ship turned towards him and said "Those transmissions are emanating from deep space. I would hate to waste the Energon, unless you are absolutely certain." At Soundwave's nod, he gave a disgruntled groan and glanced at a Vehicon at the space bridge control station and said "Then lock on transmission coordinates and activate the space bridge."
The Con nodded and worked at his station. Outside of the Earth's atmosphere a massive machine activated, a space bridge portal forming and a Cybertronian jet flew out before it transformed and the being yelled out "Decepticons! I have returned."
END
Author's Notes: Update Schedule and Poll on Profile (Please vote on Poll, it currently only has SIX votes and is a VERY important poll so PLEEEEEAASE!)
Oh boy, working FIVE NIGHTS IN A ROW really kills my ability to get anything done during those days in between. Donating blood on the day that I planned to do final proofread didn't help either. Still, could have been worse, I DID have half of this chapter already written for the Potential Stories cache.
Also, I did a little bit of shuffling for my planned roster. When I first updated the schedule with this mass story additions to the roster my planned RWBY stories were near the end of the roster. I thought that since this was a RWBY crossover that it would make slightly more sense to have those two come after this story. Also, this gives me a little more leeway in getting High Winds caught up. That second chapter for the three version One Piece stories are quite the doozy after all, being at around 20 pages! (To put that in perspective, Fish Tales is currently at 51 pages, and I've been working on that off and on for years.)