Chapter 4 - Into the Fire

Itzal remained perched atop one of the tallest trees, watching the island from the best view point possible. His eyes were still glued to the flags that waved in the wind. The flag of the World Government and the symbol of the Marines. Itzal drooped and grabbed at a lower branch and hung from the tree as he observed the fortress. From what he could tell this was the only settlement on the island. The rest of the island looked to be all jungle with one mountain beyond the fortress, towering over the compound.

'A Marine island?' Itzal was slightly confused as to what marines were doing here. 'Rob said that the Marines are so rare in the Blue Seas that they're considered a myth. So how come they have a fortress here? And why is it keep a secret?' Itzal's mind was piecing together what this could mean but he had limited knowledge on the marines as a whole.

'Better take a closer look.' Itzal jumped from the tree top to the ground below. He landed with a resounding thump. Itzal glanced to the top of the tree before taking off further into the dark jungle. Whether it was from curiosity or caution, Itzal wanted to check out the fortress.

Itzal run through the jungle for what seemed like an hour, his feet dirtied by how much dirt and mud he ran through but he had no indication of getting anywhere closer to the fortress. He didn't stop running but he could have sworn he passed the same tree more than once now.

'I think I'm lost, great, right when I wanted to investigate that fortress.' Itzal looked around his surroundings, a dark and cold jungle, the light of the moon couldn't pierce through the jungle canopy, a mist had begun to creep in when Itzal had been running but he hadn't noticed until now bringing with it a chilling but gentle wind that caused goose bumps to form on his arms. Itzal finally turned to the starry sky above. 'Maybe I better check where I am.' Itzal made his way to one of the trees in the area that looked the most manageable to climb.

Before he went to climb it Itzal paused, he glanced around his environment, before jumping back and rolled across the ground, as he peeked at the tree he was just stood by a massive log collided with the tree, crunch, snapping the base of the tree causing it to fall away from Itzal. Standing straight again Itzal peered around him, the mist now slowly began to thicken.

Itzal stood his ground, he peered through the mist in search of what had hurled such a massive log at him yet he couldn't find anything. The fog was too thick now for Itzal to see deep into the jungle, he could only see a few feet around him but Itzal calmed himself and began to listen. If he couldn't see what it was he'd hear it instead. After a moment Itzal heard it, the thumping on a creature that moved in the mist. He could hear the beast's movements indicating it was a large one as well. Itzal took a linear stance, bringing up both his hands, one cocked back ready to strike while the other was outstretched seemingly following something through the mist.

"Pocket Burst!"

Itzal punched forward letting lose a blast of high-speed steam that shot through the mist. The result was almost instantaneous.

Rawwwrr!

The roar was one of pain, it was clear as day Itzal had hit his target, whatever that target was. Itzal readied himself the beast was hurt but that didn't mean it was over. The thumping grew louder but the beast still hadn't left the safety of the jungle mist. His stance remained firm, ready to throw a powerful strike when needed but still loose enough for a swift dodge if an attack was to come Itzal's way.

Crunch! Itzal picked up on the sound of wood snapping and breaking through the mist. Itzal sidestepped right, only by two feet, and dodged another tree trunk that was hurled at him, the trunk itself was thrown more like a javelin in a straight line than just unceremoniously hurled at him.

Itzal wasn't fazed by the tree as he heard it behind him clatter and smash through the trees behind him. 'This is rather pointless' thought Itzal, he knew he wouldn't be hit by one of these flying trees, his speed was far too great for that but he'd be here all day if he just dodged everything and made no attempt at trying to fight. Itzal needed a plan to end this waste of time quickly.

"Omniscience Liberated!"

Itzal combined life return and observation abilities to raise all of his senses to a high degree. His plan worked, with the increase in his sense of hearing and touching he could feeling the impact and hearing the thumping of the beast in the mist and it circled him, he picked up the animalistic breathes through the mist. He could almost piece together the shape and size of the beast from the noise and impact it was making.

'There!' Itzal rushed to his left, dashing into the mist, his eyesight had been increased but the mist was just too thick to see through. Itzal relied on this other senses to guide him to his target when he felt a large presence just ahead of him. Itzal overheated his fist and threw his fist forward like a piston. The strike was too quick to be seen by the untrained eye, the fist hit his target.

The beast roared in pain as the large silhouette of the creature was flung back away from the impact zone of Itzal's heated fist, crashing through various trees, causing splinters and shrapnel to be flung in all directions. The silence of the night had been replaced with the thunderous impact of trees hitting the ground and the roar of a beast in pain. The mist had dispersed slightly from the creature being flung back, it had thinned out, enough to seeing much further than before, Itzal cancelled his Omniscience ability, not needing it now.

Although his fist was only in contact with the creature for a second at best Itzal still noticed that he had come into contact with a creature that had fur. Even if he ended up burning that same fur off with the heat of the strike. The creature was also rather beefy, the strike felt as if it had hit something hard like a tough leathery skin.

Rawwr!

Itzal didn't get much time to put thought into it, taking an evasive stance Itzal waited to see what would emerge from the mist. To his surprise, the beast leapt out of the mist higher than anticipated. Itzal pushed backward to evade the slam of the beast.

Boom!

The beast slammed both of its arms into the ground Itzal was just standing on, the ground split under the impact sending chunks of dirt and wood to be thrown into the air.

Grrr!

The beast had was now clear as day, to Itzal's surprise it was a large ape creature. The creature stood at twenty feet tall. The beast towered in height, half the size of the smaller jungle trees. Its fur was mostly white and silver, its skin was dark grey and looked like a tough leather armour. The ape's teeth were jagged and sharp with two of the teeth sticking out like tusks on an elephant.

Itzal noticed just at the base of the creature's ribs was an area of burned and char fur, the skin seemed to be inflamed from the hit. Burnt skin with a small trickle of blood staining the fur below it. Itzal had hurt the beast rather seriously and it was mad.

The beast grunted before charged at Itzal in a fit of rage, Itzal remained in an evasive stance ready for anything it threw at him. As the beast closed in, it started to swing its arms wildly left and right, trying to strike Itzal with everything it had in a mad frenzy.

Itzal, on the other hand remained calm, he just simple dodged each strike. He first crouched low to avoid the hook swing of the ape, he than sidestepped left and avoided an upward swing. The attacks after were basically a repeat of this cycle. No swing made contact with Itzal, the ape's movements were too predictable and slow compared to Itzal who wasn't putting much effort into it.

The ape roared once more finally having enough with being unable to hit Itzal. The beast lifted both its arms up into the air, standing tall and prepared to slam the ground where Itzal stood. The ape standing straight like this and its arms up easily made it thirty feet tall, its massive frame covered Itzal in its shadow.

This was Itzal's chance, the beast had left itself vulnerable to an attack. Itzal saw this opportunity and took it. Faster than the eye could Itzal crouched low in his stance, produced small heat jets of steam and propelled himself upward. Itzal swung his heated fist upward catching the ape with a fierce uppercut. Blood spilled from the jaw of the ape before he grabbed a hold of the beast by the skin. Itzal flipped over the ape, still holding onto the ape before swinging it over his head and slamming the ape into the ground head first.

The impact shook the ground and caused a crater to form from the force. Itzal stepped back away and watched the ape. Laying in the crater was the beast. A small trickle of blood ran down its forehead, its body just at the base of its ribs also bleed slightly. Burned, charred and inflamed skin around the wound, another wound also formed on its jaw from where Itzal had uppercut the creature similar to the one by its ribs. The ape had been knocked unconscious from Itzal's strike, the beast lay unmoving in the crater.

'What the hell is an ape like this doing on this island? Do the marines know these things are on the island?' Itzal sighed before turning to leave, 'I'll figure that out later, I want to investigate that fortress.' Itzal glanced around to find the tallest tree to climb to try and orientate himself and locate the direction the fortress was in but before he could he heard rustling nearby.

Itzal turned back to the scene of the fight with the ape only to see through the mist over a dozen of yellow beastly eyes staring back him. Eyes that were exactly the same to the ape he had just beaten. The ape Itzal just beat wasn't alone it seemed.

Itzal just stared back at the eyes in the mist thinking to himself, 'So the ape was apart of a group.' Itzal paused for a moment, 'Group? Or is it a pack? What do you call a group of ape's anyway? I don't think it's a pack of ape's.' Itzal shrugged his shoulders, 'I'll ask Zarina when I see her.'

Just as he finished his thoughts another ape charged Itzal from the mist. Itzal just blinked at the creature before getting into his evasive stance once more ready to take on the rest of the ape's group. Group? Pack? Whatever.

Rob and Zarina had been walking along the beaches of the island for sometime now and still hadn't found anything to even indicate that there was a settlement on the island. It had been a while back since they both saw Itzal disappear into the dense jungle and they had heard no sign on him coming back, all Itzal and Rob had agreed on was they'd see each other later which wasn't much of a plan to begin with.

Rob just continued to walk along the beach, keeping an eye out for any signs of a settlement but overall didn't seem all that bothered about their current situation. Zarina on the other hand was thinking of many different situations that could play out on this island. Although she could go on Zarina was curious as to find out what Rob was thinking right now. She turned to face him as they walked side by side.

"Rob," Zarina spoke calmly, Rob turning his head to her, "Do you have any plan to get off this island? It's not like you or Itzal have another ship to jump aboard if there turns out to be nothing of interest on this island." Zarina folded her arms as they walked along the beach.

Rob laughed softly, "I personally don't have a plan and I doubt Itzal has one either." Rob scratched his chin, she had a point, what were they going to do?

"For pirates who are going to be sailing about the seas you both don't even have a plan on how you're going to acquire a ship? So what? You're both going to be famous shipless pirates then?" A snarky comment slipped through her lips without Zarina realizing, luckily she has come to realize neither Itzal or Rob don't mind it.

"Well to be fair, Itzal and I only became pirates about three days ago. We haven't exactly made any plans." Rob defended himself, although it was a poor defense that Zarina could easily rip through.

"What kind of pirate needs a plan to get a ship of their own? I think it would rank pretty high on a list of priorities for a beginning pirate crew." Zarina continued to berate Rob as they continued their search, it wasn't out of cruelty or anything, more so of just her being nervous. This was the first island she had ever been on that wasn't her home island and it wasn't exactly the best circumstances either. All she was trying to do was creating an environment for herself to ease her nerves and worries. Thankfully Rob seemed to pick up on it and was completely fine with her doing this, even if he was being somewhat scolded, anything to help right?

"I suppose you're right on that." He grinned at Zarina, "I'll figure something, Itzal knows that we'll need a permanent ship to call our own." Rob paused the conversation for a moment to think, "Say, want to come up with ideas for a ship name?"

Zarina looked him in the eyes to see if he was joking, "Seriously? We're in the middle of searching for a settlement and to each find our own way off this island and you'd rather think up a name for a ship you haven't even gotten yet?" Zarina waited for his response to her argument but it wasn't exactly what she had been expecting.

"Oh and we'll need to design a flag, something to symbolize the Sky Pirates! Any ideas you care to share?" Rob glanced over to Zarina and all she could see was his cheeky grin plastered across his face. He was doing this on purpose.

With an exaggerated sigh Zarina quit her protests dropping her arms to her sides, "How about a Skull with black hair but instead of the cross bones you have wings?"

Rob threw his hands behind his head and stretched for a moment. "That's the spirit." He chuckled to himself, Zarina shook her head but she had to admit it was also somewhat amusing to talk about.

Rob and Zarina continued to discuss various ideas for a name and a flag, much to Zarina's protests on staying more focused on the task at hand she found herself drawn into the conversation. Once she starts something it's hard for her to leave it finished, she'd be damned if she didn't come up with something. This is how it went for a while as they continued along the coastline. The conversation made the time go by quicker so it wasn't all dull but it was getting to the point where there might now be a settlement of some kind.

After some time had passed and a few ideas shared, such as a shark or sea king as a figure head. The symbolism meaning king of the sea, comparable to Itzal as king of the pirates. Another idea for the flag being a skull and crossbones with roses wrapped around the bones but in the end it would be Itzal that decides all this, the ship would belong to the captain after all.

"I'll have to share all these ideas with Itzal, I'm sure he'd love some of them." Rob had only come up with the sea king idea, he was more impressed by how Zarina put more effort into that than necessary. She was certainly a perfectionist.

Zarina's nerves had calmed from before, she hadn't really noticed once she enthralled herself, once she has decided to do anything her mind goes at it one hundred percent. "Indeed, it should be Itzal that makes the final say on your flag and ship name. He is your captain so it's only logical."

The two continued to walk, having been distracted by the conversation they hadn't comprehended how far along the coast they had walked. Rob took notice of an opening ahead.

"Oi Zarina, look." Zarina looked straight ahead, fixing her glasses, dazed into the darkness ahead of them. What they saw was an opening into the jungle in the form of a large river leading into the depths of the misty, dark jungle.

Rob was about to say something until he sensed the presence of people nearby. Without a word he grabbed Zarina and dragged her to the treeline and pulled her behind a tree, where they both hid.

Although Zarina didn't feel threatened by Rob she wasn't all too happy about being dragged around like a rag doll. "What was that for?" Zarinas tone was somewhat passive aggressive, one Rob took as better have a good reason for that.

However, this wasn't the time for that, Rob placed a finger over his lips to quiet Zarina. Zarina quickly quieted down and waited for what Rob was doing. He peered out from around the tree and stared out to sea. Zarina peered out the same way Rob was looking, at first she saw nothing but she barely caught sight of a ship. She was amazed a ship could be so invisible like this one was. The ship was heading directly toward the mouth of the river.

The fact a ship was sailing as it was is rather strange. For one, why is the ship heading up the river? Why was the ship not lit up? A ship the size of this one would usually have lights on it, if not for other ships to take notice, it would be for the crew to see where they were heading. And why was Rob hiding from the view of such a ship? She had quickly come to realize that both Itzal and Rob were exceptional fighters, they had the strength to go up against a prison convey and come out relatively unharmed.

"What's wrong? Is it the ship?" Rob took a moment before replying to her, his gaze not leaving the ship as it reached the mouth of the river and was slowly heading into the jungle.

"There is only one reason why a ship wouldn't have lights to signal its whereabouts, and that's if it wants to be invisible. Hidden. They don't want to be followed, meaning wherever that ship is going they don't want anyone else to know about it." spoke Rob in a cautious sounding tone, not something you'd hear from Rob if knew him well enough. Rob stepped out from behind the tree and moved to the mouth of the river and looked further down the river and saw the ship, although it slowed dramatically once it entered the river.

"I've seen many ships dock at my home island over the years. Plenty of them have not had any signals lights on. Some ships don't need it, others just don't want to be seen." Zarina explained, "They could just not want to draw attention to themselves as they stop off for the night."

Rob smiled before turning to Zarina who stared at him rather confused why he was smiling so suddenly. "Let's follow them. I bet it will lead somewhere entertaining."

Zarina couldn't believe this man, one moment he had them hide from view of the ship the next he wanted them to follow to wherever the hell they were going, however, Zarina knew there wasn't much of a choice here. She was going to stick with either Itzal or Rob until they found a settlement and since Itzal is fuck knows where at this point. If Rob was going, she was too.

Zarina rested one hand on her rapier and pinched her nose with the other. "You really are a pirate aren't you?" Rob simply shrugged before turning to head along the shore of the river. 'Why do I feel like this is going to lead us into trouble?' She glanced over to Rob as he moved slowly only the shore as not to leave Zarina behind. 'As long as I travel with Itzal or Rob I feel like trouble will be a normal part of my life.' She sighed before picking up her pace to catch up to Rob.

The ship was moving very slowly, clearly not wanting to run aground as they navigated the river. It just made it easier to tail the ship from behind since it couldn't put any real distance between each other.

"Rob," Zarina called over to Rob, who was slightly ahead of her making a route for Zarina to follow behind him. When she got a hum of acknowledgment she continued, "Any idea what we might find? As well as what exactly will be awaiting us? And why the need for secrecy?" The jungle foliage was dense

Zarina was asking the right questions, however, "I have no idea." His response was rather lacking. Zarina didn't even bother to react, she almost expected that half ass answer.

"Why am I not surprised." She muttered mostly to herself, Rob laughed slightly so she knew he had heard her.

"So the potential of illegal smuggling, slave trafficking or otherwise horrid and secret-worth activities didn't cross your mind?" Zarina quickly listed off but a few theories as to what this ship might be involved in. Mostly criminal ones came to mind.

"Nope." She sighs at his ignorant response.

"Well do you at least have a plan if this goes sideways? If their pirates what will we do?"

"Well we'll have to find out before we start making a plan. No point stressing over something that might not come to pass." His answer didn't exactly spark much faith in what they were doing. "But I will say that the ship didn't seem to have any exterior markings to indicate it being pirates or marines. The ship itself looked more like one you'd see with civilians but that is meaningless."

Zarina waded her way through the jungle shrubs following close behind Rob who continued to tear through the jungle foliage making a path for them to follow. She thought back to the moment she saw the ship. 'No obvious markings but…' Than she realized something, "You're right about no obvious markings but the ship was armed. I could have sworn I see the glint of moonlight shining off a cannon of some kind."

"Ay, I saw it too. Which means we're not dealing with some random island settlers. So your guess is as good as mine as to who we're dealing with." Rob continued to trapple the foliage making a path for Zarina. He kept one eye on the ship at all times, his sense of adventure guided him. He wasn't losing this ship.

Zarina went quiet, she began to ponder various plans for what they'd come across. The short time that followed passed in relative silence, other than the sound of their footsteps crunching across the dirt and branches of the jungle floor and Rob forging a path for them as quietly as possible.

Zarina was about to say something when she was cut off by Rob, "Oi Zarina, look." Zarina lifted her head up slowly, drawing herself from her thoughts and looked passed Rob and before her stood a massive fortress. From their view on the riverbank they had clear view into the fortress from the opening the ships used to come and go, further inside the complex were small lookout towers dotted sporadically across the grounds. Walls stretched all around the complex, a large lagoon was located in the centre. Numerous ships docked at various docks around the lagoon. Ships ranging from briggs to frigates all of which were well looked after and not to mention armed, some of them very heavily. The walls of the fortress towered over most of the buildings in the complex. Spotlights litter the walls at regular intervals watching the jungle that surrounded it.

But what caught their attention the most, was the flags that swung atop the largest building in the complex.

"Marines."

"The World Government."

Rob and Zarina both spoke at the same time, turning to each other.

"So it's a marine facility than." said Rob, beginning the conversation. "I gotta admit it was rather obvious now that I think about it."

Zarina nodded in agreement, "You're right, it was rather obvious. I just wish I had seen it coming!" Zarina vented slightly, she didn't like how she could read into the clues and discover what this island was before they got here. She was rather frustrated.

"Well, what do you say we take a closer look?" suggested Rob, Zarina just blinked at him before speaking.

"Well if we're going in there, the best way would be…" Zarina paused for moment. "Wait! Why the hell am I helping you sneak in!" Zarina, in what could be described as a quiet scream, said toward Rob, her gaze was that of a small glare. One which Rob didn't find the least bit intimidating.

Rob smiled cheekily at her, "That was your own doing not mine, besides your along for the ride might as well help out right?" He gave her a thumbs up, Zarina dropped her head in frustration, "But what was this plan of yours, I'd very much like to hear it."

"Simple, get close to the wall, dodging the spotlights of course, and shimmy our way around the opening on the river and make our way to the building on the opposite side." Zarina said without lifting her head. She raised her hands and rubbed her temples in an effort to ease the mounting frustration. "The building on the other side looks to not be in any major view of lookout towers, it would be our best bet of hiding inside."

Rob glanced over to the building in question, Zarina was right. The building was slightly looked over by a larger building. Blocking it from view of any lookout post. The building wasn't lit up very much either and was in the shadow of the larger building, it would be easy to sneak in there undetected.

Rob glanced over the surroundings once more before speaking to Zarina, "Well, are you coming or not?"

"Do I have much of a choice right now?" Her response got a small laugh from Rob.

"Nope." Zarina didn't even hear his response, she already knew what his answer would be. It wasn't particularly hard. Zarina stood up, as did Rob, and readied herself to dash to the wall on Robs signal.

"Now!"

A basic signal but never the less an effective one. Both Zarina and Rob quickly dashed forward to the wall from the treeline. The spotlights where as far apart as they could be so it was the best opportunity they had. With very little effort they both made it to the wall and quickly shimmied their way around the wall edge, making sure not to fall into the water and alert anyone nearby.

Rob went first and basically swung his way around the edge with no effort. Zarina, on the other hand took her time, extremely careful not to fall in. But her caution failed her and the dirt she stepped on fell from under her feet. Her heart rate picked up considerably once her mind realized she was going into the water. Just as she was about to lose her footing Zarina felt a hand grab hers. She looked over and saw Rob had caught her. Without a seconds delay he pulled her over onto solid ground. Without a word Zarina nodded a thank you over to him and the two quickly and silently made their way over to the smaller building.

As they approached the door Zarina knew the door would be locked and glanced around to see if she could find another opening. Her idea was a more sneaky approach was smashed once she heard the crash of metal shards hitting a concrete floor. She looked back to Rob and saw he had kicked the reinforced door to pieces and had already stepped inside.

Zarina sweat dropped at his choice of infiltration, "They'd never know he was here." She muttered to herself, stepping in behind Rob. Zarina had to ask herself, 'This isn't going to go smoothly is?'

And this chapter is done! Took longer than I expected, I had a few personal issues to deal with which took up sometime as well as at one point I struggled to put words on the page to describe what I wanted. I ended up writing a part and than rewriting it again because I felt like it didn't express the idea I wanted to convey to you. (The Readers)

And I got other projects in the works. (Two of which are SYOCs, so feel free to message me and I'll give you the details.) (I know people love their SYOCs)

Those are my excuses, forgive me please! Be gentle!

However I do have something fun for yous to do. See how I mentioned the flag, ship figurehead and ship name? Well here's the chance to think up something fun for the story. Leave a suggest as to what you want them to be. You ladies and gents get to (If you want to / are bothered to) design the crews flag, decide the figurehead of the ship as well as the final name of the ship. Just thought I'd give yous the chance because it won't be long before the crew gets their ship.

One thing I've learned is that I seriously underestimate how much I can do in one chapter. I'd planned to have a lot more than in this chapter but it ended up slowly than I thought it would be all because I don't want to make the story seem rushed. I planned to wrap this arc up and move on but that won't happen now.

What did you ladies and gents think of the chapter? Good, Bad or Acceptable? Leave your thoughts in a message or a review and tell me everything you think so far. And I also wanted to get your opinion on the 'pacing' of the story. Am I going to slow? Too Fast? Let me know because I can try to figure out the best pacing so I'm not leaving everyone waiting.

Special thanks to SpaceDragon for beta reading the chapter! You Da Best!

Disclaimer, I obviously don't own One Piece (For Shame). All OC' go to their respective owners and such.

AlcatrazDGold - Till the next chapter…