What Makes a Good Pirate...
"What the hell is going on?" asked Johnson as he shoved James' head down beneath the railing, "what's up with all those there Marine ships?" James looked up at him questioningly, wondering if he was being asked this question. "I mean Skypiea and the World Government aren't exactly on the best of terms. Skypiea has been resisting all of the Marines attempts to drag them into an alliance. Apparently they are rather happy with the current on-goings of their nation." James nodded, he may never go to school, so he didn't know of the specifics, but there was definitely a large wedge that split them apart. He wished he knew more about it now.
"Crap," muttered the captain as he turned around, "looks like we won't be going all the way with you, James, I kind of hoped to send you off." James turned around and nodded slowly. "You don't need us to get back home as a matter of fact its probably better that the Marines haul you up there. After all, they are the good guys in this world. Its quite possible that they'll take you up there and give a soft pat on the back...just say you stole away or that some jerk ass pirates kidnapped you. Don't mention our names though, okay, we got a long record with those Marines...mentioning us will pro-" his words were cut short as a loud cannon fire was unleashed followed by an immediate explosion.
"What the hell!" shouted James as he turned around and watched the scene unfold as the Marine open-fired upon Steam Street. "What's going on? Why are they firing on Steam Street, its just steam, right? As soon as its destroyed it'll just be replaced by more steam! Its just a waste of ammo!"
"Look closer and you'll see that they're not wasting their bullets," laughed the sniper of the crew, a man who had been dubbed as 'Goggles' by the rest of them. He was lean, had messy hair, and two large blue bubbles for goggles and he had kind of a slow drawl."Here ya go, kid," he said as he passed on a pair of binoculars to him. "Take a closer look." James nodded and brought the odd contraption to his eyes. His face turned to one of horror.
"THEY ARE SHIPS THERE!"
"I thought I sensed some insects," muttered a large man as he stepped lightly onto the ship, "it turns out it was just pirates...even more disappointing then insects." The man laughed loudly as he drew a gun and aimed it James for a second, causing the young man to jump back before the man quickly swiveled the gun upwards and aimed it into the air. "The name's Blark...I'm a scout, not a fighter." He pulled the trigger and sent a large red obnoxious missile into the sky which exploded with a crisp fiery rain. "The people I just signaled are fighters though."
"Damn you!" shouted Marco, swiftly stepping forward and drawing his sword, cutting through his opponent in one swift motion...only to miss by a mile. The 'scout' had already leapt into the air and was staying in it, jumping up and down as if he was standing on a solid piece of land. "Geppou, eh? It'd be a shame if someone clipped your wings!" Marco leapt into the air, following Blark using a similar technique that allowed him to chase after him into the wild blue skies.
"Looks like we're fighting," said Goggles as he produced a large rifle from his thin coat and took aim over the seas, "I count about one hundred and fifty of them approaching us at a high speed using Soru. I'll try to snipe a couple of them out of the sky, but..." Goggles let loose a bullet that cut through the air at a surprisingly fast pace. "I doubt it'll do much good. There's just too many of them. Anything you want to say captain?" The captains' face turned pale as he looked around...they couldn't run away, not with onslaught, but still surviving it had just about as low of a percentage.
"We know...go get that blasted box you got from those damn natives and run away, we'll cause a distraction for you!" shouted Johnson as he heaved his large hammer onto his shoulder. "We'll handle these Marines and then get back to the par-" Johnson was thrown backwards by the first wave of the Marines reaching the ship. The man was lean and tall about 8 feet tall and he had long slender arms, on each arm he wore sharp metal claws, one of which was currently embedded into Johnson's shoulder. "I SAID GO, CAPTAIN!" He yelled, bringing his hammer over the air and into the side of the intruding Marine. Johnson was soon back up on his feet, screaming as he brought his hammer around and into the head of the poor Marine.
"Such poor creatures still think they have a winning chance?" muttered a man as he landed on the ship, up top and in the crow's nest. "I'm surprise they are here, pure coincidences rarely work out in my favor. Oh, well, I guess as a Marine Admiral I'm not supposed to let them leave here alive. Ah, very well...onto the execution. Rankyaku...Guillotine."
"Where the hell are you taking me?" shouted James as the captain carried him deeper into the ship. "I'm innocent or did you forget? The Marines should be willing to save me! I just got to make up some lie about you kidnapping me!"
"Ordinarily, I'd be fine with that, boy, but..." the captain grimaced as another cannon ball burst through the ceiling, mere inches above their heads," did you forget what they were doing to Steam Street?" James remembered that they were shooting at any boats that came down, but still why did that involve him. "Something smells rotten and I think the Marines are the cause." James paused with his struggling for a few precious seconds as he tried to think it through why would the Marines do something like that? Aren't they supposed to the peaceful ones? "I imagine Skypiea has something the World Government wants." James looked up at him baffled.
"There's something that was always a thorn in the World Government's side...and they would do anything to get their hands on it." The captain set Jams down as he went to the safe and inputted a few numbers. "Ever since the days of old...there was these things called 'Ancient Weapons'...things that were capable of ending the world...if it wasn't for opposing 'Ancient Weapons'...it was believed that they had been wiped out, but back in the days of Monkey D. Luffy, it was proven that there were techniques for reviving them." The captain quickly opened the safe and ran to the little box that he had sworn to protect. He quickly stuffed it into his pockets. "I can't imagine it exists in Skypiea, but I do imagine that the World Government wouldn't stop at any lengths to revive it...they'd probably begin with peaceful negotiations and then slowly begin to escalate."
"Those connections the doctor had...they came back...it turns out Dukoru is actually a Marine who works under the guise of a Slave Trader...he expertly kidnaps people and turns them into the World Government for questioning. I imagine that's what he's doing with your friend...he's turning her in where they can question her for the location of the Ancient Weapon."
James took a quick step back as he tried to remember all of what Dukoru said. His last words before he knocked him out sounded like that, but James thought he was just thinking up of a lie. Not to mention he mentioned the World Government would take Skypieans for 25 million...as well as getting hints about 'it' from his friend. James guessed he had just jumped to conclusions about him being a normal slave trader. "Wait, then why are they attacking Steam Street? There own man is up there!"
"That's exactly why we are doing it," muttered a man as he stepped in, his shoes were stained heavily with red blood and his blank pant legs weren't much better off. "You see, the thing is...his face is now known to the White Berets and we actually got a good reaming from them about a man named Dukoru was found to be stealing women and causing trouble for them...not only that, but apparently they found a Marine flag and documents on his ship. So we need to clean up his mess. We aren't very tolerant of messes so everyone involved in the Dukoru incident will just have to disappear from the map." James took another step back, knowing that this man was including him in that statement. "Right now on Steam Street we are finishing off Dukoru and any of those pesky White Berets that are following him down." James' eyes widened, the White Berets were innocent. "After that, we'll have to go back up there and to Skypiea...find any possible witnesses and exterminate them. Its a shame, we actually have to waste manpower eliminating stains like them from existence."
James leapt forward and threw an incredible punch right at the Marine Admiral, his head barely budged. "God, are you weak," the Marine said, swatting James' hand away, "I can't believe I almost used Tekkai to absorb that blo-" the pirate captain immediately struck, landing two fierce blows into the Marine Admiral's gut, using his finger-tips. "Ah, indeed...I had almost forgotten that you were here. That a near excellent Shigan, ex-captain of the CP-8, Sundam." The pirate captain smirked.
"Figured you'd remember eventually," he said as he stood up and brushed his coat to the side and threw it at James. "Get out of here, quickly...I'll hold him off."
"Oh, really, and where will he go?" asked the Marine Admiral. "He's a Skypiean, he wouldn't even know how to work a compass, much less a Log Pose." Sundam smiled and began warming up for a fight. "His home will be in tatters in a matter of hours, he'll have a bounty on his head, and the entire world will think of him as enemy. You're basically giving him a death sentence if he comes with us and agrees to play along we can keep the bounty off of his head, ship him off to some nice private island, or, hell, even join up with us Marines. As you can see only one of us is giving him any real option."
"I think I need to explain it to the kid, that CP-8 is a branch of the Marines." Sundam took a step forward, "so I can honestly say that this goal that you are trying to achieve...I'll stop you at all costs! I was hoping I could usher in a new age of piracy by myself, but I found out that I can't do that, however, there is one thing in this world that could...the thing you Marines fear the most...the One Piece!"
"Ha, stop being a joker," laughed the Marine as he shook his head, "do you honestly expect me to buy that stupid line? Everyone knows that the One Piece is a myth. When Monkey D. Luffy died he expected the next generation to follow blindly in his footsteps in search of that gold, but nobody could ever find it. 20 yeas of millions of lives lost searching for it proves only one thing, it never existed! Luffy and Rogers made up the lie to send thousands of young people to their deaths again and again! It was all a sick twisted game made up by the minds of sick twisted pirates!"
"What if I said I had a map to the One Piece?" Sundam grinned as he noticed the change on the Marine's face. "A map revealing the exact location of that great treasure. Do you believe me now? It was when I was traveling across the seas just living life, a small island I went to gave me this gift...a wooden box and inside was a map with the initial of D painted on the back and a note that only had one sentence on it, 'THE AGE OF DREAMS WILL NEVER BE OVER'!" Sundam charged, tackling the Marine and knocking him aside.
The small wooden box...James could feel it. When Sundam had thrown his coat to him, the wooden box was within it. He was entrusting him with the future. James jumped forward, stealing his hover board back and soaring off through the ship with it. He passed by numerous Marines, all grunting as they were thrust to the ground and landed harshly on the ground. He erupted from the ship and flew into the air, accelerating faster than ever before...stupid brakes only slowed him down. The Marines would never catch him...he was a Skypiean, so he knew two things...Dials and the sky! He vanished into the thick fog of Steam Street...leaving the pirate crew behind to carry on their dreams of a new age of pirates.
(-Later-)
"I suppose you're happy, right?" asked the Marine Admiral as he tore another chunk of ship out. He was largely unharmed, unlike Sundam who was injured beyond belief. "You apparently tossed that kid that wooden box with the map in it, right? Congratulations, it got away. Are you happy with yourself?"
"Heh, I was a Marine originally, remember? And I can tell you one thing...do you know what makes a good pirate? I can honestly say its not physical strength, intelligence, or hell even the promise of a great treasure like the One Piece...what makes a great pirate is...their grit! So, am I happy that the box got away?" laughed the captain with a smile forming on his exhausted lips, "I can honestly say I don't give a damn about it any more. But am I happy that the kid got away? Well, I am absolutely ecstatic over that."
This Poses a Problem...
Dun-Dun-DUN! We finally see the treasure within the small box. We finally see the face of Marines and we find out more about the Pirate Captain's past. The Marines definitely seem like someone you don't want to mess with and they are overly zealous attacking an island in search of a Weapon that may not even be up there? Killing off hundreds of innocent people in order to hide their secret backwater deals? Definitely not the kind of villains you want to get involved with. HOWEVER! I can officially say the first chunk of Sights Set on the Sky is over! We can officially move on to the first official arc!
...I should also point out I am pretty much done with finals, however, A) I still got to deal with Christmas around here, so don't expect me to suddenly become super-active and also B) my schedule is now in shreds and up in the air. I don't expect too much damage for the next couple of weeks...but who knows what January will bring.
James Toolbox: As promised here is the Water and Heat Dials!
Water Dial: The average Water Dial that James keeps on him can store about a galleon of any liquid (there are larger ones however that can store up to a swimming pool's worth.) On top of being able to release a powerful jet of water (or any other liquid) they can release a steady trickle and act like a water bottle. Their temperature can be affected by outside conditions. They can be heated or cooled and the insides will be as well (there are special coatings for them which would prevent them from doing so though. James does own them, but he rarely uses them). Once emptied refilling them is a breeze. Just submerge them in water and press the button and it will fill right up.
Heat Dial: Like in actual One Piece. The Dial releases a stream of incredibly hot air, hot enough to easily boil water and set dried trees on fire. The incredible heat is very useful in both combat and out of combat. They can cause horrible burns if used incorrectly (or correctly). It is best used in tandem with conductors of heat (like steel or water). Unlike most Dials, the Heat Dial actually does not 'require recharging'. The Heat Dial naturally heats up its insides and as a result without any outside interference they will naturally replenish their hot air sources. As a result they are a favored Dial of Skypieans everywhere for the infinite uses and easy recharge. They are very common as well. There is also rumor of a 'Chill Dial' which behaves in an opposite manner, but there are very few known encounters.
Next time in James' Toolbox is the Jet and Breath Dials.