The Path of the King

Chapter Two

Making Your Name

"Get up." The voice called through the haze called sleep in front of Caleb's eyes. "We leave today." Caleb nodded, only half awake, at his new comrade Leaf as they cracked their joints and grabbed their packs. They'd spent the past two days sailing on the high seas, and yesterday they'd arrived at their first destination; Newburgh Island, otherwise known as the Walled-Off Island. The island had gotten its name because it was, essentially, a town held hostage by the Marines loyal to Blackbeard. They had built a wall around the small town that was over thirty stories high, and anyone that went in or out had to have the proper certification. So when Leaf had told Caleb that they were going to break inside, he had been a little more than skeptical.

"It won't work." He had said almost immediately. They were planning the raid on an oaken table in the inn in Robinville, one of the few buildings that had survived the attack. Not only were the two companions there, but the entire town was surrounded around the table, and each of them seemed to agree with Caleb's thinking, with multiple shouts of "that's right" and "it's impossible" going around the room.

"Let me finish." Leaf had said after drawing his blade and threatening to kill the next person who spoke. "If we attack this base, we'll make one hell of a front page, and right now, that's what we did. Luffy broke into Enies Lobby – we don't have the man power to do that," He tapped the plans in front of him as he continued, "but we do have the man power to do this. You and me, Caleb. That's all we'll need."

Now, hanging on the side of the giant wall, Caleb was cursing himself for agreeing to this. The first part of the plan involved Caleb scaling the wall – by hand, mind you – with the assistance of some suction cups that Leaf had made. "You've got one shot!" Leaf hollered up to Caleb when he had gotten halfway up the wall, "Make it count!" Caleb gave him a thumbs up and started Phase Two of the plan.

In the three weeks they had planned this, they had spent the remainder of the time working on Caleb's new powers. Caleb had asked Leaf about this almost immediately after learning his name, and Leaf had, at first, been reluctant to tell him. Eventually, however, Caleb managed to convince Leaf to tell him the bare minimum.

"It's an ability called the Thunder Blood." He'd said. "It's an ability native to a species known as Raiskians on a New World Island known only as Raiskia. Because the island constantly has lightning falling on them, the natives had to evolve this ability. It lets them draw lightning from the air and use it in their attacks. Why you have it, I'm not sure – Gerheart never talked about where he was from, and we never knew your mom."

So for three weeks, Leaf and Caleb had worked on shaping the lightning. After all that time, however, they were only able to get three techniques completed. Luckily, however, they were the only three techniques that they'd need. Caleb grinned as he drew in the electricty from the surrounding air, creating a hammer made from lightning. "Mjollnir!" He cried inside his mind as he smashed the wall with the hammer. The lightning from the hammer leaked out and spread into the cracks of the bricks, then exploded, leaving a gaping hole in the wall. Smiling, he gave a thumbs up to Leaf, who motioned for him to drop back down.

"Now what?" Caleb asked when he reunited with Leaf, who was preparing something on his left arm.

"We go around the other side." He said, sprinting off. Disgruntled, Caleb followed him around to the other side before Leaf abruptly stopped. "Here should be good." He mumbled as he extended his left arm upwards towards the top of the wall. Leaf looked over at Caleb, his eyes smiling. "You might want to grab on." He said as he extended his other hand. Caleb grabbed it and the plan began.

A rope shot out from the tube over Leaf's left arm and continued to fly until it reached the top of the wall where it snagged onto something. After making sure it was safe to climb, Leaf retracted the rope, sending the two rebels flying upwards.

When they got to the top, there was a guard waiting for him. Without giving him a chance to strike, Leaf threw a shuriken in the man's throat, silencing him, and Caleb used Mjollnir to finish the poor man off by knocking him off of the wall. Leaf and Caleb watched as the man flew all the way down and landed in the water with a splash. "Your dad woulda been so proud," Leaf remarked, bringing a smirk to Caleb's face. Then Leaf turned and faced Newburgh, saying, "Let's go."

"Sir!" A Marine yelled as he dashed into his superior's office. He coughed as he entered; it was unavoidable. Everywhere you looked in the room was smoke, smoke, and more smoke. "Sir!" The Marine repeated, a little louder this time. The chair behind the desk turned around and revealed the man's superior, Captain Marcus Cancer. He was smoking two cigarettes in his right hand, and every few seconds he would put them to his lips for another hit. His left hand, however, was an iron prosthetic, built in the shape of a claw. It was this claw that gave him the epithet "Iron Claw" Cancer.

"Ye called?" Cancer said as he took a hit. The lower-ranked Marine stumbled a little in his words as he told the Captain that two people had just broken through the Wall. Cancer stumbled and coughed as his cigarettes fell to the floor. When he looked up, there was one hell of a death gaze in his eyes. "Call Captain Pinchetti." He growled in a low voice.

An hour later the two Marine Captains were standing face to face. One was short and muscular, and the other was tall and skinny. One had short black hair, and the other had long blonde hair. One had one arm, and the other had one eye. In fact, the only thing that was similar between the two was that they were both Marines. "You called?" Pinchetti said in a lackadaisical voice.

"Intruders." Cancer growled, causing Pinchetti to stand up straight to his full height of seven feet nine inches. "You search inside, and I'll check the Wall." The captains nodded to each other and dashed off to their assignments.

"We cannot thank you enough for letting us stay," Caleb said as he bowed, "it means more than you can know."

The innkeeper gave him a funny look, handed him a key, and then walked in the back room, muttering something under his breath.

Caleb and Leaf had been able to find a temporary home in an inn here while they prepared for their invasion. For now, Caleb was alone; Leaf had said that one of his contacts lived here and had run off after telling Caleb to find somewhere to stay.

Caleb had never been outside of Robinville, so he was incredibly happy to go wandering around outside. He saw that there were many things about Newburgh that were far different from his hometown. For one, it seemed much poorer. The houses were all made of wood, and the roofs were made of straw. There were no solid roads; just lines of dirt that led you around the town. Caleb was horrified when he noticed that not only were there no trees, but no grass as well.

"This place has no life." He muttered to himself as he sat at a table inside the inn. Even the inn seemed lifeless; there were a multitude of people inside, but almost no noise. There was no whooping, no drunken celebrations, not even so much as a laugh. That is, until a man sat down across from Caleb, a grin plastered all over his face.

"Hey ya there, buddy!" The man said as he shook Caleb's hand vigorously, "It's an honor to meetcha! Name's Jason. What about you?"

"Caleb." He responded, skeptical of the man's intentions. "Do I know you?"

"Nope, never met. I just wanted to come over here and talk to ya, seein as how nobody else here will." Jason swiveled his head around left and right, almost fearful in a sense. "Ya know, it seems like everybody here's 'fraid of something."

"Like what?" Caleb responded, "You? Me?"

Jason shook his head rapidly. "Nah, man, you and me are just a couple 'a normal tourists, right?" He winked at Caleb, and Caleb's skin went cold. Did Jason know why they were there? "Nah, they're scared of somethin else. And I may know what it is." He leaned into Caleb, and Caleb did the same. "Those Marines," Jason whispered, "they got somethin' happenin' in that base of there's in the back of the town." Jason dropped a key onto the table and motioned for Caleb to pick it up. "I stole that from a very important-looking Marine. I heard him talking about it unlocking something great." Jason stood up and put on his jacket, about ready to walk away. "When you do break in," he whispered with another wink, "find whatever's behind that door." With that, Jason walked away.

Caleb managed to catch up to him at the door. "Who are you," He asked, "and I don't mean your name. Who are you, really?"

Jason grinned and saluted Caleb. "A friend. Trust me." With that, he walked outside the door. Caleb tried to follow him, but when he stepped outside, Jason had disappeared.

"It's so nice to have you back, Leaf!" An old woman said as she set a plate of cookies down in front of the embarrassed man. "You send us such few letters, we'd thought you'd forgotten about us!"

"Mrs. Morgan, of course I didn't forget about you," Leaf said as he took a cookie, "but times have been rough lately. You must know what I'm talking about."

"Yes, I do." Mrs. Morgan said as she sat down a cup of tea in front of Leaf. "That Blackbeard is ruining everyone's lives. In fact, just the other day, those Marines of his beat up my son just because he tried to leave the island!"

"Where is Helmeppo, anyways?" Leaf asked, sipping his tea. "He didn't greet me at the Wall like he said he would."

At this, Mrs. Morgan hung her head and began to weep. "They took him!" She bawled suddenly, startling Leaf. "Those Marines took him and locked him away in the base out back! They didn't even care that he used to be one of them!" Leaf put an arm around her, comforting her in the only way he could.

"Don't worry about it," Leaf started to say, "I'll get him ba-"

Suddenly, a knock came at the door. Mrs. Morgan stood abruptly and turned to Leaf with a finger over her mouth, motioning for him to stay quiet. Leaf nodded and ran back into the hallway as Mrs. Morgan answered the door. In busted two Marines, fully clothed in their black attire.

"We've received reports that an Unauthorized Immigrant has been in this home." One of the Marines announced. "Therefore, we are going to search this house in its entirety, and arrest you if we find anything." With that, the two Marines began to systematically destroy the place; they overturned bookshelves, tables, couches, nearly everything in an attempt to find Leaf.

The man in question was hiding inside one of the rooms towards the back of the house. From the looks of the room, it had been Mrs. Morgan's. Leaf knew that Helmeppo would never paint his walls pink. The sound of footsteps grew louder, and Leaf slowed his breathing as he heard one guard enter the room.

"What a horrible place." The Marine spat on the floor as he began overturning everything in the room. Eventually he got to the closet where Leaf was hiding. Without any warning, the door busted open, and Leaf took a small knife from his belt and cut the man's throat out.

The other Marine heard the commotion and came into the room with his pistol out, but Leaf threw the knife directly into the man's eye, forcing the man to shoot wildly into the ceiling. As the Marine screamed in pain, Leaf pounced upon him, removed the knife, and stabbed one more time into the man's heart. This finally killed him, and Leaf was relieved.

He ran back out into the main room to find a very distraught Mrs. Morgan. He took her by the shoulders and told her what to do. "Go to a friend's house," he said, "and don't come back here until you hear a big commotion. My friend and I are going to make it all better, I promise." With that, Leaf ran out the door to find Caleb.

Caleb was drinking a mug of soda when Leaf came in, panting like a dog. He motioned for his friend to come over, and Leaf complied. "Good soda here," Caleb said as he took a swig, "much better than the stuff back home." He set down the mug and stared across at Leaf. "Whatcha find?"

"My contact's in jail." Leaf said cooly. "We're gonna go bust him out."

"That jail wouldn't happen to be anywhere in the base towards the back of town, would it?" Caleb asked.

Leaf was a bit started from Caleb's knowledge. "Well, yes, actually." He cocked an eye and leaned towards Caleb. "How'd you you know that?"

Caleb looked left, then right, and then pulled out the key that Jason had given him. "A man named Jason gave me this," he explained, "and told me to open whatever door this opens. He said it'd be in that same base." Caleb grinned as he pocketed the key. "Looks like we're gonna go piss someone off."

End of Chapter Two

AN: REVIEW THIS STORY OR BOWSER WILL EAT YOU AND SAY MWAHAHAHAHAHA

Anyways.

So Helmeppo's one of the good guys now, eh...

Sketchy Sketchy Sketchy!

What will happen next to our heroes?

…

Hmm. Haven't thought about that one.

Wink.

Good afternoon, good evening, and good night,

dryderson