Growing Heart

Ch 9 - A Second Chance

No matter how hard Enel tried to get his trident back, Sid managed to keep it in her possession until, in a moment of desperation and panic, she had no choice but to throw it over the edge. With every throw of a lightning bolt, Luffy would intervene and take it for her but even on the few that did hit her, the effects of it seemed to disappear with the steam it created.

Without his weapon, Enel was at a disadvantage against Luffy but even then, there was the huge hurdle of landing a punch on him due to his Mantra ability. However, it was a hurdle that took little time for the Blue Sea pirate to get over. He stretched his arms longer than Sid had ever seen them go and flung his fists straight into the metal walls of the ark. They ricocheted off of the hard surface and flew behind him in every direction. Without Luffy controlling where his punches went, Enel's Mantra gave him no indication of how to avoid them.

Punch after punch came at Enel from every angle and soon the fake god was on his knees.

"I won't let you get away anymore!" Luffy roared, turning to face Enel directly and running at him at full speed.

"Wait...Wait just a minute," Enel protested as Sid came up from behind him, hauled him up to his feet, and held him in a full nelson.

"Don't worry about me," Sid said to Luffy despite the small shocks of blue energy emitting from Enel's skin, "Give him all you got."

"Gum-Gum....Bazooka!" Luffy yelled.

His fists hit Enel hard directly in the stomach and as soon as Sid let go of him, he doubled over with his eyes rolled to the back of his head and blood dribbling out of his mouth.

"Hmm," Sid sniffed. She made a point to step over the fallen god and then nodded at the Blue Sea pirate, "All you now. He's not going anywhere."

"Ah," Luffy nodded and then ran backwards to the wall, keeping his eyes on his target, "Gum-Gum..."

Enel's head looked up. Sid had no doubt his Mantra was screaming at him for what's to come but there was nothing he could do.

"RIFLE!" Luffy screamed. With just one punch, he sent Enel spinning and flying towards the golden wall. He landed hard even managed to create a minor dent in it.

"You did it! You defeated Enel!" Nami cheered while Sid's blackened skin receded and she returned to normal.

It was the healer's turn to fall to her knees and both she and Luffy were heavily out of breath.

"Who knew it was this hard to sustain this?" Sid panted.

"Sid! What was that?! What did you do? Was that some sort of dial or something?" Nami asked as she rushed over to help her back on her feet.

"We call it God's Armor...It's something I once used as a kid but...that was only once...No matter how hard I tried I could never get it back...until now," Sid said in between labored breaths.

"Does that mean you can control it now?" Nami asked.

"I...don't know," Sid said with a grin.

"What?! Why are you saying it like that's a good thing?!"

"Because I know how much it bothers you that I don't know."

"What?! Why you..." Nami said. She let go of Sid and was crestfallen to find that the healer had regained her footing and could stand just as well without her. Of course that only made the healer's mood that much better.

"Now that's done, how do we get down?" Sid asked, peering over the edge and looking down at the trees.

"Wait! More importantly, why are we still up?!" Nami demanded, "The engines should've stopped when Enel went down!"