Lessons

792 35 0
                                    

The men slowly pour into the room, finding streaming plates of high stacked pancakes before them. "No pasta for breakfast?! Thank you for having mercy on us, Killer." "I didn't cook." The man points at Gear who is sitting next to him, her cheeks stuffed with pancakes like those of a chipmunk. "Hm?" "You made breakfast?" Swallowing down the food she nods. "Yeah. You bunch looked a bit too hangover to put anything together."
"But.. what about Killer?" "I gave him his food extra to eat alone." The man gives a thumbs up. 
They all continue to gobble down the food, all but their fiery red haired Captain thanking her for the meal. "Come. Let's get to work." Gear grins and nods, then freezes. "Can I leave you alone with all those dishes?" Killer looks at her then nods. "Thanks for the food." Gear grins. "Anytime, love." Ruffling his hair she then follows Kid to his workshop. Stepping inside she takes in all the parts, smiling happily. This was her element.
"Feels like home.", she grins, stretching a bit.
Kid glances at her, a small smile tugging the corners of his lips up ever so slightly before he pulls them back down into his signature scowl.
"Let's work on this... These are the blueprints for the arm.", Kid says and Gear hurries to his side, leaning over the paper.

"This is beautiful...", she says, looking at the detail in it with bright eyes. "What materials did you use?" "Whatever we happened to come by.", Kid says, falling into a long explanation. He rarely got to really talk about these projects so to have someone listen intensely and ask actually good questions was a nice change of pace.
Before they know it, they are sitting together and crafting the basic skeleton for a new prosthetic limb for him together with Gear explaining her every move to him. Before they really know it a day has passed and they have gotten the most basic structures done. "I was thinking of giving you an even higher charge laser than the Pacifista have so you can cut them in half before they even know what's going on." Kid grins. "Sounds good to me." "We make a good team, don't we?" They share a grin. "We sure do." "By the way.. I'll disappear tonight for a bit.", Gear tells him, making him raise his eyebrows? "Where will you go?" "To my own ship. I'm planning on making Killer a mask he can eat with.", Gear explains. "Your ship? We are in the middle of the sea!" Gear grins. "Want to see it?" Kid raises his non existent eyebrows. "Depends." "Do you have a fear of heights?" "I don't fear shit." "Great. Because I built the world's first flying ships and mine is the very first of them. The Bastard. Mothership to about twenty others I made for Dragon." Kid immediately gets up and follows her outside where a few of the crew members are going on about their duty. "Requesting immediate bastards escort.", she says into her wrist where she had implanted the voice activated control for her ship. They all look at her as if she were crazy until they notice about 20.. things, just falling down onto them. "What is that?! I can't control it with my devils fruit!" "Those are my bastards. They will be what gets us to my ship."

The creatures land, one by one.

Slowly moving across the ground like animals

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

Slowly moving across the ground like animals. Gear passes by the terrified or disgusted looking men, petting their metallic heads. "You can't control them because they are made from a material I created of a mixture between a non metallic element I won't reveal and molten Seastone." She jumps onto the back of one of them. "Get onto one of them and hold on tightly." Kid slowly does and Gear nods. "Return to Mothership." Her gaze catches that of Killers mask and quickly she extends her hand to him, which he takes, pulling him up onto the robotic creature as well. "What is this?" "I'm taking you two to visit my home I guess.", Gear chuckles, while securing the man standing closely behind her. They both look in awe as above the clouds they spot a huge flying ship that looks both haunting and elegant at once. They enter and the creatures land securely on the ground, allowing the three to jump of. "Welcome to The Bastard. My ship and home.", Gear announces, before turning to the bastards. "Get some rest. I'll call you if I need you." Whirring they move away. "This is incredible.", Kid mumbles, placing his hand against the walls. "Thank you. It's made from the same material as the bastards but I laid it out as a mixture between a battleship, a home and a workspace. It is my home after all." Gear walks ahead of them and they follow. She gives them a tour of the place, excluding her sleeping space and finally opens the, for them probably most interesting part. The workshop. Humming Gear moves through her space, collecting together materials while the two men look in awe. "How did you built all this?! I mean.. how did you even thing of this?" Gear smiles. "Well.. I really, really loved the idea of flying ever since I was little. I knew through my contact I could easily get a zoan fruit of any type of bird but I didn't want to lose my ability to swim so I became obsessed with mechanisms in order to someday create something that would allow me to fly. The Bastard is only one of many flying ships I've built and the bastards are basically a smaller version of them, just that they are highly functioning weapons doubling as companions." "They look creepy as fuck." Gear laughs. "To you, maybe... Their skulls are modelled after human ones after all. And they all have their own facial features...", Gear says, packing up some more metal. "Why?" "I like morbid things. I like anatomy. I like mechanics. I like intimidating others. Also.. I think they are kind of cute.. in their own ways." She smirks, whistling and the two men suddenly notice the glowing eyes all around them, watching in terror as one of the robotic creatures walks up to her and she rubs its head. "See? Cute." It opens its mouth, letting out a whirring noise, comparable to a purr maybe. Gear chuckles. "They are my creations. My children in a way. I guess that always brings along a certain fondness. They also all have names. This one for example is Kai." Gear gently points at the skull. "You can see it is him when seeing the crack right here. I accidentally damaged him while creating the outer, shiny, easier to clean layer of the skull and.. well.. it always makes me sad but it makes him unique."
"Hell nah."

The Bastards [Shanks]✓Where stories live. Discover now