Author's note: I am once again shamelessly advertising my new DC fanfic (The Average DC Experience)! There are already nine chapters out, and you only need to enter my profile to find it, so give it a look if you have the time!
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"Nice place you have here..." Doc said, eyeing the mansion's dining area they ended up in, sitting on a long table with Dr. Hogback himself seated at the edge as the host.
The dining room was spacious and luxuriously decorated with a fancy chandelier, numerous portraits of finely dressed individuals, and a giant polar bear rug, which sent shivers running down Bepo's spine.
"I'm glad you like it. It's my pleasure to host you and your friends here," Hogback replied, smiling as he nodded his head. "But why are you all here, by the way...?" he asked after a second's pause, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"We arrived on this island by accident, so we decided to explore it since we're here already..." Doc replied, lying through his teeth as he returned Hogback's smile.
"But some weird creatures attacked us out of nowhere," Doc added, waving a hand to the side. "We took care of the creatures, of course, and that's when one of your subordinates... I think Hildon was his name, showed up," he explained, earning a nod from Hogback, to which he shrugged.
"He told us about you and that you wouldn't mind sheltering us for the night..." Doc said, his smile widening as he looked at Hogback. "We couldn't refuse the invitations since no doctor would pass the chance to meet a world-renowned fellow practitioner like yourself," he added, expertly stroking Hogback's ego, almost making Law scoff at how easily and naturally Doc did it.
"Oh! So you guys are doctors as well, and these strange creatures attacked you, you say? At any rate, I'm glad you are safe, more than anything else, and I'm happy to shelter you for the night as well," Hogback replied, his smug smirk deepening at Doc's words as he nodded in satisfaction.
"By the way, what's wrong with this island? Forget about those zombie-like creatures. We've seen many unnatural things that made us doubt our own eyes on this island since arriving here," Law commented, maintaining a polite tone, as polite as Law could be anyway, trying to play along with Doc's act.
"To answer your question, I don't know what is happening here. I'm living here to find out..." Hogback replied, raising two open palms to his face level.
"These creatures are indeed zombies, and I'm here to research them," Hogback passionately stated as he stood up from his seat as if preparing to give a speech.
"Most people would feel fear when they hear the words zombies and undead, but they always overlook the fact they were dead people who came back to life!" Hogback remarked, raising two clenched fists in front of his face.
"In other words, by studying the zombies, I'm researching the secrets of resurrecting the dead!" Hogback stated, waving a hand to the side as he raised the tone of his voice.
"All humans, every one of them has a special person or two they'd like to resurrect... Resurrection has been one of humanity's dreams for the longest time..." Hogback concluded, somewhat deflating as he sat back in his chair, failing to notice the scowl slowly creeping into Law's face and his gnashing teeth.
However, Doc did not miss Law's growing anger and quickly snapped the latter out of it by subtly nudging Law in the side and sending him a meaningful glance.
"But toying with death is an unorthodox science that most people consider blasphemous..." Hogback remarked, sighing and shaking his head. "So I came here away from prying eyes to continue my research in peace..." he concluded, heaving another sigh.
"I see. It's an unorthodox science, there's no doubt about that, but you'll receive no judgment from us. I'm sure many people would appreciate your research should you succeed," Doc replied, smiling with a shake of his head.
"You guys are very open-minded indeed. You have my thanks," Hogback said, nodding in approval at Doc.
"At any rate, you all must be tired. Cindry-chan has already prepared a warm bath for you guys..." Hogback remarked, turning to the side, where Cindy entered the dining hall, holding a lit candlestick.
"We'll take you up on that offer, then," Doc said, nodding as he got and walked towards Cindry, gesturing for Law and Bepo to do the same.
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"Now then... where to start?" Laffite muttered as he stood at the bridge between the Thriller Bark mansion and the mainmast, seemingly undecided about where to start his treasure hunt.
However, he had to stop thinking as a wide sticky wide thready came flying towards him. Laffite stepped to the side, merely smiling as he turned to the source of the attack after dodging successfully.
"My... you're a big one, aren't you...?" Laffite muttered, a cheerful smile on his face as he tilted his head to the side while watching the rather large creature sticking to the mainmast's wall and glaring at him.
The giant creature was a mixture of a monkey and a spider. It had the head, hands, and tail of a monkey and the body of a spider, with the complementary six additional arachnid limbs.
"I don't know what you're up to, but this as far as you'll go... -monkey, monkey," the creature spoke, adding the word monkey at the end of its sentence for no reason.
"How troublesome..." Laffite remarked, still smiling as he sported a thoughtful expression. "I'm sorry, but I have no time to play with you right now," he added with a shake of his head.
"I'll have to insist, -monkey, monkey," the creature replied as it jumped into the bridge to face Laffite, preparing to attack as it raised its two bandage-covered hands.
"What a persistent guy, but like I said..."
Laffite smiled, brandishing his cane, and stomped the ground, making the bridge tremble, and collapse shortly after as the navigator channeled Impact Force towards it, sending the gigantic creature flying down.
"I don't have time to play..." Laffite remarked, floating in the air as he looked down at the falling creature.
"I guess I'll go this way, then," he added, turning to the mansion and floating towards it, but he had to stop again to dodge several more sticky spider threads.
Laffite turned to look down, sighing in annoyance as he saw the creature furiously climbing the mainmast while shooting threads at him.
"I'm Tararan, a spider-monkey-hybrid, and if you think you can get rid of me that easily, then-" the creature, Tararan, exclaimed through gritted teeth. However, it couldn't complete its sentence as something hit it from below, exploding and making it stagger to the ground again.
"If you want a fight that badly, I'll be your opponent. My friend up there looks busy."
Tararan grunted in pain as he looked up after hitting the ground, noticing a tall, yellow-skinned fish-man looking down at him while blowing the smoke out of a hand cannon, seemingly attached to the fish-man's hand.
"I'll take care of this guy, Mr. Navigator," the fish-man, Elvis, said as he turned up to look at the navigator, waving a hand.
"Then I'll leave it to you," Laffite said, smiling and nodding at Elvis as he began floating towards the Thriller Bark mansion.
"Bastard, you're not going anywhere," Tararan exclaimed, raising his hand and aiming toward Laffite. However, he couldn't shoot his threads as Elvis lunged at him, the cannon in his hand disappearing, replaced by a giant stone hammer.
"You should learn to listen to people's words!" Elvis exclaimed, swinging down his hammer at Tararan's head, making the giant creature scream in pain as its head was almost flattened on the ground upon impact, creating a crater in the dirt.
"I'm sorry, but as a new member of the crew, I'll have to use you to prove my ability to the others..."
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