Zoro tucked and rolled, dodging you easily. You planned on that. Killer wanted you to try making fire without a full transformation and that would've been a pain to try with the hedges right behind him. You needed him positioned better and now he was.

The tricky thing with partial transformations is figuring out how to force some. Something like changing your hands to talons was easy. It was all visualization. You see it and poof, it happens. But with something like an organ you'd never seen or even knew where it would be located at, that was hard. All you knew was you needed fuel so that's what you focused on.

Zoro twisted around to face you and drew a second sword. Before he had time to do anything else you breathed in deeply, feeling a familiar tickle in your throat, and spat out brilliant blue flames. You were excited it worked, until you realized you weren't controlling it. It was reaching too far and wasn't far from catching the hedges and grass on fire.

"What the fuck?" Zoro grunted as he hugged his back against a hedge, narrowly avoiding the flames.

"I'm at a dead end Killer." You ignored his comment.

"Shit. Give me a second."

"Make it a quick one, it's not just me here."

"Who else?"

"Zoro."

The man frowned at you at the mention of his name. He placed the hilt of a sword between his teeth and drew a third one. There was no way he was planning on fighting you like that. He looked rediculous.

"Hold him off for a bit and I'll get you going the right direction."

Not like you had a choice. Zoro launched himself at you and you had a split second to change your other hand to talons and hold him back. Dragon hide was thick and as far as you knew, impossible to cut. But the second his swords hit your palms, you knew he broke the skin. The surprise must have shown on your face. He grinned around the hilt in his mouth and pushed harder.

You weren't going to lose your cool over a couple small cuts though. The dress ended up coming in handy, giving you enough room to sprout your tail and lash out at him with it. It made contact, whipping across his ribs and sending him careening down the path. You took a second to glance at your hands. The cuts were small. They wouldn't need stitches but it was still amazing that someone had the strength to actually hurt you.

"You're the dragon." Zoro stood back up, rolling his shoulders and loosening his muscles.

"Yep." You chirped, rubbing your palms together. You'd hate to get blood on the nice new dress.

"I thought you'd be bigger."

"Yeah and probably a man too." You huffed.

He blushed, immediately becoming flustered. Seems he didn't like getting called out on it.

"It doesn't matter what you are." He finally answered. "Just show me you can fight."

Now that you could appreciate.

Zoro kept low as he ran at you, going in to sweep under your feet. You were going to have to push your partial transformation if you were going to fight him for real. Before he could reach you, you let your legs change to match your hands and feathers flowed like water along the rest of your body. You were able to push off the ground and get enough air to jump over him and crack your tail at him.

The best part about going half dragon was the feathers did a great job covering you up. Killer thought it was a great idea to have you go without panties but your half form kept anything from being seen by the wandering eye. Neither cameras nor Zoro would be getting flashed tonight.

As soon as your clawed feet hit the ground, Zoro was already twisted around and moving in on you again. You were ready for him, coating your arms in haki and swiping his swords away with one hand while shredding his suit front with the other. Fine lines of blood beaded up on the surface of his skin, staining his white undershirt.

"You're holding back." He growled disapprovingly. "Fight me for real."

You eyed the space around you. The hedges were too close together for you to change and have room to move. "Sorry to be a Debbie downer, but there's not enough space for that."

"I've got it figured out Blue, shake him." Killer said.

"Can do." You smiled at Zoro. "This has been fun and all, but I'm going to have to catch you later."

You bolted away before he could respond, following Killer's new instructions.

"I've got it all figured out, the entire route." Killer said confidently. "If you run into anyone else feel free to rough them up, spit some fire at them or something, but don't stop. Some of the other guys here are getting pretty fired up and I think most of the teams are ahead of us."

"So I need to speed up." You said. "I think I can do that."

"Good. You need to get ahead of them all and win. Kid's counting on that, along with a lot of other people."

"What?"

"Yeah. They caught your scrap with Zoro on camera and some of the people are beginning to get it. Don't do a full transformation until you reach the end but keep it up with the fire and talons."

"Okay, just keep the directions coming."

You'd left Zoro in the dust and decided to try something new. If you could channel your dragon strength in your hands to lift things you normally couldn't, who's to say you couldn't give yourself a speed boost as well? It took just a second of focus and you felt your muscles coil and tighten up with improved energy. It was so simple, you didn't know why you hadn't tried it before.

You were covering ground more than twice as fast now and Killer was almost having a hard time keeping up with instructions. It worked great with the first trap you came across. You ran towards a portion of hedges that looked off. As soon as you stepped in front of them, a barrage of darts flew out from among the leaves. You were too fast for any of them to hit their target though. It was perfect for keeping your dress in one piece.

The next person you ran into never saw you coming. They were ahead of you, running like their life depended on it when you flew past them, flinging yourself around to breathe a controlled jet of fire at them. Their clothes caught fire immediately and they fell to the ground, trying to suffocate the flames. They'd be fine if they stripped and you planned on them doing just that.

It was impressive how fast you'd figured out how to use your fire in this form. You'd lit the guy up without getting close to burning anything else. It only looked better that you did it while on the move.

A few more turns and you came across two other people fighting it out in front of a triggered pit fall trap. Both of them were huge, muscle bound men. The second they saw you, all talons and feathers in the vague shape of a human, they focused on you. One wielded a knife about the size of a small sword and slashed it at you. After the run in with Zoro, you were a little more wary of weapons and kept out of reach.

The other went to throw a punch at you and you simply wrapped your tail around his wrist and flipped him out of the way. He fell into the trap and hit the ground with a heavy thud and groaned in pain. You definitely weren't gentle. The man still on his feet stepped back, keeping his knife between you and him. He was spooked of little ol' you. You smiled, flashing a bit of elongated canines and slashed at him with your talons.

He stumbled back further, waving his knife around in a panicked attempt to keep you away. This was too easy. You pushed the blade to the side and shoved a knee straight into his groin. He fell to the ground with a pitiful, high pitched whine. You only stopped for a minute to deal with them and you were back on the move again, jumping over the trap.

"Almost there Blue, just a few more turns."

"Why haven't I run into more people?" You huffed.

"There's more than one route to take. We got lucky. Now do me a favor and make it as showy as possible when you get to the fountain."

You didn't answer but you didn't need to. You made your last few turns and the hedges opened up to a large, grassy area with the fountain placed right in it's center. Directly in front of that, was another contender. Basil Hawkins himself. It shouldn't have surprised you as much as it did. There were no rules stating gang leaders couldn't enter themselves. But he hadn't reached the feather yet, you still had a chance.

You didn't stop to transform but did it while on the move, throwing yourself into the clearing and letting out a bloodcurdling scream as you wrapped your full length around the fountain protectively.

Hawkins stumbled, wincing at the shrill noise and glaring up at you. He knew who you were, probably the moment he did his card reading.

"Eustass Kid will only hold you back! You should ally yourself with stronger people." He warned.

You simply snarled in return, showing razor sharp teeth and clawing along the face of the marble woman caged in by your body. Her delicate features crumbled under you as the last trap went off. Red flames spewed from every angle into the clearing. It was laughable.

Hawkins ducked to the side to avoid being burned while you bathed in the flames, spreading your wings to feel the full effect of their warmth. You'd tried so hard to keep from setting any of the greenery on fire only for whoever was hosting this to do it themself. Whatever. Killer said to put on a show and you saw your chance for a good one.

You let a talon brush against the loose feather held in the statue's hand, puffed out your chest, raised your head to the sky, and let loose the biggest jet of fire you could muster. It worked like a beacon.

The flames started out white hot and faded to their normal blue the further out they went, lighting up the entire maze. Red swallowed up the ground around your feet and blue marred the perfect night sky. It had to be one hell of a view for all the onlookers. If this didn't make Kid happy, you didn't know what would.

Your fuel reserves didn't last long, not after pumping so much out for the little show. Before they turned to weak, sputtering flames, you cut it off. The fire around you was already dying down in some spots, leaving the charred remains of grass and flowers. It was a shame to see the once pretty area be ruined as much as it was but at least it wasn't your own doing.

Hawkins had backed off before you'd even started breathing fire. He knew when he'd lost and there was no point in fighting it. But he watched you carefully, very much in the same way he did when you first saw him in the mansion. That was fine as long as he knew you didn't care what he thought about you sticking with the Kid crew. He could take his warning and shove it.

It was strange though. As hot as the area was, his stare was cold. It was enough to almost make you shiver.

----

"Got it!" You chirped as Kid and Killer came into view.

You left the maze, hugging your large feather to your body as the rest of the contestants trailed along behind you. Some seemed terrified of you while the rest were trying to piece together how such a small woman could turn into something so imposing. You could practically see the wheels turning in their heads.

"I knew you would." Killer said with a smile. "And not a scratch on you."

"Well, not exactly."

You showed him one of your hands. The cuts had stopped bleeding a while ago and were now covered in dried blood. It stung each time you opened or closed them, like it was stretching the now tender skin too much. But the cuts were still pretty shallow. They'd need to be cleaned and bandaged and then you'd be good to go.

"How'd you manage that?" Kid asked as he tried to take the feather from you.

You pulled away defensively. He couldn't have it again. It was insulting how he got it and then he just gave it away to send you after it. You'd burn it before letting him have it again.

"Me." Zoro walked up from behind you, looking more than a little irked. "And I want a rematch, that was hardly a fight."

"No." Kid glared at him.

"Hold up." What was he, your mother? "What if I wanted a rematch too? There wasn't enough space for either of us to get serious."

Zoro smiled at that. "So is that a yes?"

Kid grumbled but stayed out of it. You won the whole thing so he could tolerate this interaction with someone from another gang.

"Not now but some other time. I've never been cut before...." And you wanted to see how much of a challenge he could really be.

This proved something you'd never thought about until now. You were stupid to think there wouldn't be people out there tough enough to really pose a threat and it was lucky someone proved you wrong in a more controlled environment. If it was a real fight, things might have not turned out as well. You needed to see where you stood against other gangs and Zoro would be a great way to test your strength. You could make Kid understand that later when you got back home.

"You're the dragon right? That's so cool!" Zoro's friend, Luffy appeared from the growing crowd of onlookers and wiggled his way over to you.

"Um yeah." You answered.

"Could I get a ride?"

"No."

"What?" He looked absolutely dismayed, like it made no sense to turn him down. It was bad enough Kid demanded letting you give him rides, there was no way you'd let strangers hop on.

"Yeah, that's not happening."

"Well that's just rude." He pouted.

There was no arguing with this guy, he was a lost cause. And he wasn't subtle about anything either. He kept glancing at your feather with obvious interest. Between him and Kid, you actually would rather he have it, if only to give Kid a hard time. You couldn't help but give Kid a mischievous smile as you offered Luffy the feather.

"I don't like giving people rides, but you can have this. I've got plenty of my own."

He laughed happily and took it from your hands without a second thought. "You aren't half bad dragon lady! Wanna join my crew?"

You giggled at that. Talk about straightforward. Kid was about ready to start a fight, furious that someone would suggest taking you away. It probably didn't help that you gave away the feather. Killer kept a firm hand on his shoulder to keep him from launching himself at Luffy.

"Thanks for the offer but I'm good where I'm at." You said.

"Bummer." He frowned, but it didn't last long. "Well we're leaving. We've got to go celebrate!"

"Celebrate?" You asked. "But you didn't win."

"No, but it was fun. And now we know who the dragon is." He left in a fit of chuckles, Zoro following after him.

"Odd aren't they?" Killer took one of your hands in his carefully to look it over better.

"They really are." Your stomach grumbled, reminding you it'd been quite some time since you last ate anything. "Can we go get something to eat and head home now?"

"Home sounds good." Kid agreed. "And you can bet your ass we'll be celebrating ourselves later."

Another party. While you were too tired and hungry to think about partying now, you were looking forward to it. But more than anything, you were curious what all this new publicity would bring you. If this night told you anything, it wouldn't be too terrible.

(A/n)

I would've had this chapter done last night but it was a whole mess for some reason. Wrote the maze scene and then realized it needed more so I had to go back and add things. Did the part with Luffy and wasn't sure I liked it so I had to sleep on it to decide it wasn't bad.

Also, I haven't said this in a long time so I figured I'd add it as a reminder since I have so many new followers; weekends are spent with family for me. Saturdays with my parents and Sundays with the inlaws so updates are iffy then. I don't make them a priority so don't be surprised if I don't always post something on the weekends.