Title: The Blood and the Gauntlet
Rating: T
Characters: Erity, Enoch Vaughan, and others
Summary: Enoch Vaughan and Erity of the Carrion Bounty Hunters. They insult each other, argue with each other, fight each other... and may even be best friends. How did such a relationship start? Well, it began with a strange island, a huge bounty, an incredibly flamboyant pirate captain, and just a little bit of understanding...

Prologue

Time: Two weeks prior to the events of TRD
Location: Aboard the Silverback, in the harbor of Sienna Island

It was quite a sight to behold. The enormous deck of the Silverback was filled with nearly every bounty hunter in the Carrion Bounty Hunters. This sea of humanity (and the occasional fishman) was cheering and hollering, surrounding three people standing in a marked ring. The first two were Enoch Vaughan and Erity, the first and second lieutenants respectively. They stood at opposite sides of the ring, both in battle stances. The third person there was Baba Runo, who was standing in the center of the ring like some kind of referee.

"Ladies and gentleman!" Runo announced, holding his arms up in the air. He smirked. "And Yari."

"Grow up!" Baba Yari snapped at her brother from her spot in the crowd.

"Never!" He retorted before going back to the crowd. "Welcome to the Silverback's First Annual Lieutenant Face-Off! In this corner, standing at 5 feet and 11 inches tall and weighing in at 145 pounds, we have our first lieutenant! The Blood King, the Blood-Manipulation Man, the Rhetorical Blunder... Enoch Vaughan!"

The women in the crowd began screaming joyously, while Vaughan winced at the sound. It was times like these that made him glad he swore off the fairer sex.

"And in this corner!" Runo went on, gesturing to Erity. "Standing at 6 feet and 1 inch tall and weighing in at-"

A black slipper flew at his head, which he narrowly dodged. He rolled his eyes, picked up the shoe, and tossed it back to Erity before continuing.

"... We have our second lieutenant! The Lady of Gauntlets, Master of Six Powers, the Irrepressible Whiner... Erity!"

Several men hooted, to which Erity flashed them a rude gesture. This led to some booing, but she ignored them. Filthy pigs.

"The rules are simple!" Runo shouted. "This is to be a battle of strength and hand-to-hand combat! No weapons, no devil fruit powers, and no Armament Haki! Or in Erity's case, just no weapons."

Several of the hunters chuckled at Runo's joke. Erity simply scowled. Vaughan smirked at her expense.

"The fight will go on until one combatant either surrenders or is unable to continue. I would say I want this to be a clean fight, but where's the fun in that? In terms of dirty fighting, anything goes! Just try not to damage the ship, because let's face it- Carrion would kill us. Are we clear?"

"We could have done this on the beach!" Yari reminded everyone. "You do realize that, right?!"

She was ignored. Erity and Vaughan nodded in agreement to Runo's rules.

Runo grinned. "Great. Now-"

"123FIGHT!" Yari interrupted.

Runo slumped in depression. "Sis, you stole my thun-"

He was once again interrupted, this time by two punches to the face that had come so fast that not even his Haki could have reacted in time.

"OUTTA THE WAY!" Erity and Vaughan howled.

Runo went tumbling into the crowd, landing next to his sister. Yari paid him no mind, despite the fact he was unconscious, and went on reading the novel she had been perusing before she'd caused her brother's harsh treatment.

With Runo 'outta the way', Vaughan and Erity had turned their attacks on each other. Erity was unleashing a barrage of kicks aimed towards her opponent's sternum. Vaughan, in turn, was meeting each kick with his forearm, blocking the assault. Erity then used her next kick to move Vaughan's arm and allow her to punch at his chest. Vaughan caught her fist and pushed her back. Erity then kicked at him with her leg and when he dodged, she did a backflip and landed a solid kick on his chest as she came down.

"Erity lands the first solid strike!" Yari announced.

While on recoil, Vaughan lunged forward jabbed his elbow into Erity's stomach, then proceeded to kick her to the other side of the ring when she hunched forward. She didn't fall over- instead she skidded on her feet and when she stopped, she kicked out her leg.

"Rankyaku!" she called out.

Vaughan easily avoided the flying slash attack. Runo's rules didn't allow Armament Haki, but Observation Haki was fair game. The Tempest Kick, thankfully, was also avoided by the crowd and it harmlessly landed in the sea. It did tear up the the rail though.

"WATCH IT!" the other hunters hollered.

"Sorry!" Erity apologized. "Didn't mean to damage the ship!"

"THAT'S NOT WHAT WE MEANT!"

Erity snickered, only to received a punch to the jaw from Vaughan. She retaliated with a side-kick, but Vaughan jumped back and took a defensive stance.

"OW!" Erity yelled. "What the heck, Vaughan?! I was talking! At least give me a second to put up Iron Body!"

"Runo said anything goes. You have no right to complain," Vaughan said with a drawl.

She humphed. "Still, I never took you for the type to suckerpunch a lady."

"I'm not," he admitted. He glanced at the tattoo on her arm. "There just isn't one in front of me."

Erity's expression went from annoyed to furious. "Soru!"

It was only thanks to his Haki that Vaughan was able to meet her next attack- a jab to his neck. He leaned backward as far as his spine would allow, then spun on his right foot while his left knee was raised. It met with Erity's side and felt as if it had been rammed into solid steel.

"Holy-!" Vaughan bit off a curse.

"Tekkai," Erity said teasingly.

"I'll get back at you for that someday," Vaughan grunted. "But for now..."

Vaughan jumped back and then lept forward as high as he could. Before Erity could react, he wrapped both his legs around her neck and twisted his body, sending them both tumbling to the crowd hard. And wouldn't you know it, she had just took down her Iron Body.

"Oooh!" the crowd winced in sympathy. Was Erity okay after that?

"Gah- YOU SON OF A WHORE!" Erity cursed loudly.

She was fine.

Vaughan, who was now sitting on her stomach and pinning her down, crossed his arms. "Is that any way to speak of a man's saintly late mother? For your information, she was an apothecary and incredibly faithful to her husband."

"YOU ARE AN OVERLY LITERAL JACKASS, ENOCH! GET OFF ME!"

Vaughan just laughed.

Erity scowled, trying to push Vaughan off. "What's so funny?"

"You said the exact same thing to me the first time we fought," Vaughan replied, smiling. "Remember that?"

Erity smirked. "I do. Do you remember what happened afterwards?"

Before Vaughan could respond, Erity had wrapped her own legs around his neck from behind. With a powerful heave she threw him off, and in the split second he was airborne she lifted herself up on one hand and drove her foot into his spine.

The men in the crowd cheered, while the women cried out in concern to their revered first lieutenant. Yari looked up briefly from her book to observe before looking away. Runo... was still out cold.

Vaughan landed on his stomach, twitching in pain briefly. "That was... different... than before..."

Erity stood up and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Of course. Last time I threw you into a boulder. Hard to find one of those at sea."

Vaughan recovered and jumped back into action. The two hunters began to rapidly punch at each other, only to repeatedly block the other's hit.

"You know, didn't we promise to have a rematch someday after that?!" Vaughan shouted, not breaking his barrage.

"This doesn't count! You're not allowed to use any of the abilities that made you such a pain in the ass back then!" Erity hollered back, not slowing down either.

"Not much has changed! You're still a gender-confused old hag!"

"And you're still a blood-thirsty arrogant brat!"

They jumped apart to opposite sides of not just the ring, but the whole deck. They shoved lackeys out of the way to do it, and said lackeys had the sense to keep the paths open. One could almost feel the aura the two gave off, as if their wills to fight were trying to leap forward and attack all on their own. For a Haki user such as Vaughan it wasn't so surprising, but for a nonuser like Erity it was pretty impressive.

"Want to ditch the rules and get serious?" Vaughan called out, holding out a fist.

"It is a pain to hold back," Erity admitted. "What about the ship?"

"We're in port."

"Okay then."

Out of nowhere, Erity pulled out her gauntlets and slipped them on, taking a battle stance. Vaughan took one as well, only he coated his fists in black Haki armor.

Yari came to attention, dropping her book. "No, stop! The ship cannot take an all-out battle royale between the two of you!"

Her pleas went unheard. Both letting loose a battle cry, Erity and Vaughan charged at full throttle at each other, fists reared back.

They reentered the ring...

... punched outward...

... and...

Time: A year and a half prior to the events of TRD
Location: Aboard the Golden Marmoset, the waters outside of Darwin Island, New World

"Land, ho!" the lookout cried down to the crew.

A figure in a dark hooded cloak stepped calmly out on deck, ignoring the hustle and bustle of the other ship-goers. He looked towards the helmsman (who doubled as a navigator), a man with a startling number of tattoos.

"Oakes!" he shouted. "What island is this?!"

"It's the Island of Abnormality- Darwin Island!" Oakes answered.

He grinned, removing his hood. He was a young man with cropped black hair- a lightning bolt shape shaved into the left side above his ear- with pale skin, red eyes, and a curved scar on his right cheek. He wore silver stud earrings and a gold medallion around his neck.

"Abnormality, eh? Considering this is the New World, that's saying something," Enoch Vaughan drawled. He grinned. "I have a good feeling about this place."

"Blood King" Enoch Vaughan

Second in Command of the (Recently Formed) Carrion Bounty Hunters

(Age: 26)

Location: The Lucky Penny Tavern, Darwin Island

Bar fights were not wholly uncommon, no matter where in the world you went. Men being sent flying through the tavern doors and through a brick wall on the other hand... while not unheard of, it wasn't an everyday event. So when one such man soared through the doors of the Lucky Penny Tavern and crashed into the brick walls of the building across the street, it got more than a few stares.

"Holy crap, did you see that?!" one bystander yelled.

A crowd formed around the man, and gasps only got louder when they saw who it was. It was a rather handsome man in a now torn black dress suit who was bleeding profusely from the nose and the various cuts on his body.

"Wait, isn't that 'Black Orchid' Presley?" a woman recognized. "He's the first mate of the White Rose Pirates!"

"He has a bounty of 160 million!" the woman's boyfriend added. "Who could take someone like that down so easily?!"

"Who, you ask? How about the lovely young maiden whose ass he groped?"

The crowd turned around at the silky woman's voice. Stepping gracefully through the crowd was a tall woman in her late 20s, with teal eyes and blond hair cut into a short floppy mohawk that had two locks falling in front of her ears. She wore a long sleeved dark blue cheongsam that ended just below her thighs. It had wide gaps in the shoulders, a bubble pattern on the front, and a small Criminal logo on one sleeve. On her feet she wore black ballet flats. What truly stuck out on her person was the pair of metal gauntlets strapped into her waist.

She sauntered up to Presley and lifted him by the shirt, shoving him into the wall. He was awake now and looked upon her in fear.

"But I suppose it worked out. I had no idea you were the Black Orchid," Erity said with a falsely sweet smile. "Now, be a gentleman and tell me where I can find your captain. I have pressing business with him."

Erity

Rookie Bounty Hunter in the New World

(Age: 27?)

Read and Review, please!

Runo slumped in depression. "Sis, you stole my thun-"

I brought back the "Runo gets depressed when his thunder is stolen" gag! I haven't used this since "Operation SAVE THE FUTURE and Other Machinations!"

"I'll get back at you for that someday," Vaughan grunted.

He does. If you recall in "Finding the Rainbow Connection", Vaughan hardens his blood as Erity kicks him, causing a similar event to occur.

He looked towards the helmsman/navigator, a man with a startling number of tattoos.

"Oakes!" he shouted. "What island is this?!"

Remember Tattoos, the guy that was hypnotized into "silencing" himself? Finally gave him a name, and I named him after the second Tattooed Man from DC Comics, John Oakes.