3. Getting Ready Part One
During The First Month
The day after my little talk with Abby, once our grinding was done for the day, I further added to my arsenal. I now had a taser in a horizontal holster over my right buttock while a Wraith stunner from the Stargate Atlantis series was over my left. I went with that orientation because if I accidently hit a friendly with my off hand than it wouldn't be as bad as if I wasted a shot with the taser which I currently had a single fire version with plans to buy a rewinding magi-tech version after I got some more spending money.
Fortunately for me, I had a Massod officer to help me get up my accuracy when firing with both hands. Ziva had me create an actual firing range ID and we would spend half an hour in it everyday using the ID provided practice guns that fired plastic balls at the targets rather than the two prongs or energy blast of the taser and stunner respectively. She was a harsh task master to be sure, but her lessons were also effective so I held the couple of complaints I had to myself.
Gibbs was worse for the half hour he had me each day. He and Leon had me in a boxing ring ID pounding some hand to hand combat skills into my thick skull. I think I 'tasted floor' more times in the first week of HtH training than I did in all of my years of beginner Karate training. At least Leon let me stay on my feet for longer than thirty seconds during his half hour, the boxer giving me advice during our fights rather than after while I was groaning on the mat.
Honestly, I think I was starting to prefer fighting hoards of enemies for a couple of hours at a time rather than getting in the ring with the Gunny. At least they had the decency of dying at the end of our fight. Not to mention I was making steady progress on ID leveling up. Within a week and a half of constant ID creation I had managed to 'level up' Abandoned Town to Abandoned City, the enemies going from 'Small zombie outbreak' and feral cats and dogs to 'Zombie Apocalypse' and 'That is one BIG alligator.' On top of getting 'better' opponents, for a certain definition of the word, I had also managed to get the x2 multiplier for money which meant that I was going to be able to buy a whole lot more gear if I kept up my current pace. (The thought of putting Nami in an orgasmic coma after letting her spend a day in the 100 times money multiplier had me cackling when I first got that little bonus feature.)
Speaking of gear, I decided to put my nose less polarized swimming mask to proper use. As soon as I had four thousand dollars to spare, I used the trade forum to give it a major magitech upgrade. After I had made my selections, I had placed the mask on the tablet and an hour later got it back with three raised bump 'buttons' added onto it, the right side bump gave me night vision, the bump in the middle of the mask gave me Backscatter, or a multispecturm overlay for the techies out there. (Basically a grey scale x ray vision from the Marvel universe), and the last bump on the left side gave me infrared, or heat vision, and boy did I have fun with those! I was acting like a kid locked in a toy store overnight for a full hour before I finally managed to get myself back to work, much to Tyrus' amusement.
Speaking of Tyrus, after a particularly bad natural storm passed over part of the island three weeks in and promptly became Quetzalcoatl chow for the island residents, he had gained a couple of feet and was now six feet long. His storm generation and other abilities had gotten a slight boost though he had to relearn how to be as efficient as he had been before. But need to rework his abilities or not, the tornado he made inside of the Abandoned City ID the day after the storm had been nothing short of impressive, the funnel of wind blowing out all of the windows of the buildings around it and using the broken glass to absolutely SHRED everything caught in it. It had been a very good thing that he had told me to get to cover before he had tried it because the sound of that much glass pinging off of the quickly raised barriers from my clerics was downright nightmare inducing.
Haki was a slow but steady progress during the first month. I could, with some trouble now, observe everything in a ten foot radius though doing so gave me the mother of all migraines to process because to reiterate, I observed EVERYTHING around me in that distance. There was a surprising amount of life underground. I had to work on limiting just what I was observing before I could expand my reach. Armament was actually easier in comparison since I was working on my body only at the moment. I had actually managed to get either a full two fingers coated in the black stuff or all of the last joints of the five fingers on one hand, though I could only hold it that configuration for half a minute after slowly getting all five joints black. Still, that was pretty damn good in my book and I had let out a cheer when I could do it ten times in a row. Surprisingly enough, the Concealment Haki Riskua had pioneered was actually the easiest for me to figure out. I could keep that up for a solid five minutes now if I wasn't doing anything more strenuous then walking around. I attributed that to how I wasn't really much of a social butterfly, tending to observe from a distance rather than be a part of social gatherings. (Something which would always drive my family mad during family reunions.)
As we entered month two, I moved onto getting a proper instructor for how to use my two Ironwood swords. To that end, I bought some more Einherjar, more specifically, I bought some Sword Art Online Einherjar: Kirito (Who took a rather LARGE chunk of my funds), Asuna (Almost as bad as her boyfriend), Sinon, Leafa, and Lisbeth, all four of them capable of switching between real life and virtual reality 'skins'. I got Kirito for obvious reasons and Asuna was his partner so obviously she had to be bought as well. Sinon I felt would be a good match with Gibbs in any fights that required sniper support, both in her GGO and ALO forms and I got Lisbeth because I thought she could help Ussop and Franky with their weapon designs down the road. To complete the set I bookmarked Klein, Silica, and after some mild contemplation Yui and Yuuki as well.
Which lead me to my current situation: Busted lip, bruises down both of my arms and on my chest from where I hadn't blocked properly, and one hell of a bruise on my right thigh. And this was from only ten minutes of 'fighting'! Letting out a groan as Lissa attended to my wounds with her healing staff, I shook my head at Kirito who was in his RL skin of 'Kazuto Kirigaya' and said "Was it really necessary to go so rough on me for an evaluation fight? I had already told you that I had never used a sword before."
"Yes." Kirito said as he put his sheathed blades back on his back before crossing his arms and said "Matt, you are currently in a world where 'superhuman' isn't the outlier, it's the norm when compared to what you are used to, and you only have two months before you enter the wider world, with only a month dedicated to learning how to wield not one but two swords before you 'move on' to learning how to use those knives of yours. That means that you have to get as good as possible as fast as possible. You can't do that if you can't see where that bench mark is and thus know what to work towards."
"You sure you don't just feel like Matt is mocking your preferred form of combat since he won't be using live steel and so deserves a beating?" Lissa asked a little snappishly as she worked on my injuries.
Kirito frowned at Lissa and said "Even if I did think planning to use only wood swords, no matter how hard said wood is, was a big mistake, I would not needlessly assault our Guild Leader like that. Need I remind you that he is going to be traveling in a world where being able to slice large ships in half with a single swing of a weapon is actually considered a bench mark for swordsmen rather than legendary feats?"
Lissa opened her mouth only to close it as I said "Enough you two, fighting won't get us anywhere. As much as I don't want to admit it, Kirito does have a point Lissa. Even if I'm planning on augmenting my blades with Haki in the serious fights, that doesn't change the fact that I will need to get as much training in their use as possible in this month. If that means needing healing after every session then so be it. If nothing else it'll get my pain tolerance higher."
Lissa bit her lip with a troubled look in her eyes before sighing as she said "Very well Matt, but I don't like it."
"You don't have to like it, just accept it." Kirito said in a much softer tone of voice before he went into teacher mode and said "Now, let's see if we can't get some muscle memory started…"
Time Skip: Two Weeks Into Sword Training
The sharp clacking sound of wood hitting wood rang throughout the Dojo ID we were currently in. My two Ironwood swords were constantly moving as I pushed my Observation Haki to its limit trying to keep up with Kirito. My arms trembled and sang a dirge of exhaustion as I constantly used every ounce of my strength to hold off the Black Swordsman's assault. Kirito was a powerhouse, whether in his RL skin or one of his virtual ones and I was dreading the day when he decided I was good enough to handle his Sword Art Online or Gun Gale Online forms, never mind when he goes all the way up to ALfheim Online.
Still, I could not argue with the results of Kirito's training methods. In the two weeks of hell I had so far endured I had went from a newbie who had to swing only one sword at a time in order to not hit them against each other or lose my balance to being able to semi confidently use both at the same time. It would take a LONG time after I joined up with the Straw Hats before I would be anywhere close to being a 'competent' swordsman by this world's standards but that was why I had Einherjar and soon Time Dilation IDs to help me train.
Kirito and I weren't the only ones training in the Dojo ID though. Tyrus and a thirty foot long Quetzalcoatl with no less then ten pairs of wings were working through a set of straw and wooden training dummies outside of the double doors. The elder Feathered Serpent was showing my partner how to use his currently single pair of wings as semi bladed and blunt weapons so that he wouldn't have to rely completely on his storm related abilities. If the complaint I heard during a short break about not being able to move his wings for the next decade followed by a cheerful reply of him now having two clubs to brain his enemies with was any indication, then the teacher was definitely enjoying the lesson more than the student was.
When we finally finished for the day I greedily gulped down three bottles of water one after the other before Celica gave my arms a quick look over. The redhead tisked to herself as she repaired a few minor strains but otherwise gave me a clean bill of health. She was much more concerned when ten minutes later Tyrus tiredly slid over to where we were sitting and curled onto her lap, yes slid, not flew. Giving his teacher a reprimanding look, she said "Shifu, did you really have to be so rough on him?"
The light brown serpent with reddish stripes and white wings gave the queen a cheerful grin and said "But of course, you can't get anything meaningful in life without a bit of effort. After all, if you're just given something than how can you appreciate the value of it?"
Celica sighed but didn't make a retort and instead focusing on healing Tyrus' wings causing the young Quetzalcoatl to sigh in relief and seemingly melt into a puddle in her lap earning a small giggle from the kind woman. I merely shook my head at the sight and slowly worked on my fourth bottle of water, Kirito chuckling a little as he drank from his first and only bottle.
Once Celica was finished healing Tyrus I ended the ID only to blink when I saw Ziva pacing inside of my cavern room. Cocking my head at her, I said "Ziva, is something wrong?"
The Mossad operative didn't so much as twitch towards me, the she-ninja probably having detected me the moment I ended the ID. She took another five steps before she began speaking as she walked and said "I do not like the thought of us helping pirates Matt. I thought I could get used to the idea of it but it's been bugging me more and more this past week."
I blinked again and said "You never gave any indication of this bothering you before."
"Mossad agents are very well trained in hiding what they think." Ziva said as she stopped pacing and turned to face us.
"Mossad agents or the daughter of the head of Mossad?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Both." Ziva said with rolled eyes before she sighed and said "I'm sorry, I know that these aren't your typical pirates, wanting adventure rather than to loot and pillage but I just can't…"
When she trailed off with an expressive hand gesture, I sighed and said "I really should have considered this when I was deciding on which Einherjar to buy." Moving over to a camp chair, I pointed at another one and Ziva dragged it opposite mine before she sat down. Celica and Kirito looked between us before they quickly left the cave to give us some privacy, Shifu soon following them. Tyrus glanced out the cave exit for a moment before seemingly deciding that he would rather listen to the conversation and settled on his stone bed.
I didn't pay him much mind as I asked "Have you talked to Gibbs about this?" At the negative shake of her head I sighed and said "Ziva, I want you to first know that I do understand where you are coming from. Your story is not a happy one filled with flowers, rainbows, and puppies. Losing your sister to terrorists, being held captive by another, even being forced to kill your own half-brother and everything else you have had happen to you, it's a rather large simplification to say that you have had a rough life." I waited just long enough for Ziva to nod before I continued "That life has taught you to fight against the world's darkness, to right any and all wrongs you come across. And given the standard definition of what a pirate is, when I think about it for even a moment, it's no wonder that you would not be comfortable with your boss not only agreeing to join a pirate crew but actively planning on giving them so many advantages against everyone else, including the hard earned skills that you and your team members have to offer." I took a quick sip from my water bottle before I capped it and leaned forwards as I said "However, the Straw Hats are NOT your standard pirates. They don't make a habit of going around razing towns to the ground, looting and killing as they go. They don't target ships on the high waters civilian or military without a damn good reason. And the only reason why they fly a black flag is for the freedom it gives them. In fact, in the show and manga they are almost the exact opposite of pirates and have done more good than the supposed heroes of this world the Marines and World Government. The Straw Hats in the source material have saved no less than eleven heavily populated regions with several smaller areas as well from destruction. They have fought corrupt officials, braved fleets of battle ships, and stood against those with the powers of elemental gods, simply because it was the right thing to do. In short, there is no one else I'd rather have watching my back in this messed up world." Standing up, I walked the few steps separating us and put my hand on Ziva's shoulder as I said "And when you meet them, then you'll rather quickly learn to trust them as well."
"Let us hope that you are right Matthew." Ziva said with a pensive look in her eyes and I gave her a nod before I removed my hand and went to grab my 3DS for some relaxation time now that the serious bit seemed over. Ziva soon left the cavern, most likely to either consider my words in private or talk with Gibbs and it was just me and my napping partner in the cave.
End
Author's Notes: Update Schedule is on my profile.
(Explosive Sigh) Man, I've had a rough couple of months. We STILL don't have a second night shift maintenance worker to replace my former coworker who shifted positions so I have been pretty much working a full time job rather than part time, and it is EXHAUSTING. I am soo glad that this didn't happen during my new years resolution period because I would not have met it.
Enough bellyaching about the real world though. I see one maybe two more chapters before I leave the island. I WAS planning on getting that all done in this chapter but then Ziva all but dragged me into the elevator and flicked the switch to put it in serious conversation mode. I honestly hadn't considered how a bunch of 'navy cops' would feel about their new boss joining a group of pirates until I started typing that conversation. Hopefully it doesn't come off as filler since I think it is actually a conversation that really did need to be had.
One last thing, the winner of the future story poll is The Pirate King's Tailor, winning at twenty seven votes to College Roommates and Jack O Lantern's five a piece. Now there's an important poll up dealing with said Transformers Prime story which will heavily influence it when I get to it after finishing a Flesh to Metal version so please look at it.