Don't own One Piece…I'm now going to say that every OTHER chapter cause well it gets annoying to type every chapter.
Chapter 12: The Gray Line
Hey…now in this part of are story we found out just who Lucci was and why he needed us. It may not have been a 'good' thing in the eyes of others but were Mercenaries and we got paid so it was a job well done in are book. Now others may hate us or look down at us because we have no defiant side…but in the oddly worded words of Root 'We walk on the gray line between good and bad…so lets just do what we fucking feel like, so lets have fun and get paid while doing it because were merc's! We don't follow the governments laws or the Pirates Code…well unless pain that is because we are the Death Root Mercenaries!'
Now just watch as everything plays got…and so it can do that I'm not going to be making any personal comments until after the 'Incident ' happened…
Mac, Shan, Siamon, and Kazuya watched as Malchior fought one of the masked intruders…and he wasn't doing so well. Mac growled at them and hit his fist together, his features starting to become more animalistic by the second.
"I'm going to go juggernaut on that guys ass!" Mac hissed threw his teeth, he been stress due to Elsa's wrath and plus he hasn't had a good fight since the alligator devil fruit user on Pompeii.
Siamon rested a webbed hand on his shoulder "Stand down Kuma…"
"Your not the boss of me fish stick!" Mac growled, Siamon could tell something was wrong with the man because over the time the fish man knew Mac he never seen the teen lose his cool. Then something popped into his head and the fish man knew what was wrong.
"As a matter of fact I am! If you remember I'm your commanding officer Conner, now calm down." Siamon ordered while watching from the corner of his eye Malchior fall, and the masked man talk into a mushi, the fish man was able to pick up the conversation but before he could do anything his tattoo tingled.
Mac tensed, Siamon saw before the giant teen quickly turned around and started to run in the opposite direction "Kuma stop this instant!"
"Fuck you tuna fish Elsa's in trouble!" the bear zoan yelled back, but before he could get any farther Siamon put him in a sleeper hold, and held it threw Mac struggling until the shipwright feel unconscious.
Siamon was breathing hard as he released his hold, just as Kazuya and Shan walked over. The archer/swordsman looked at the knocked out body off Mac before turning to the second in command. Shan was checking to see if Mac was okay.
"Si what the hell was that all about?" cursed the Crow confused as hell.
Siamon sighed before nudging Shan out of the way and hoisted Mac onto his shoulder "You guys have to remember Mac's part animal and-"
"It's his instincts!" cut in Shan, Siamon just looked at her "Yes that's correct, as you might know when there's a danger like a hurricane or a tornado…or in this cause a flood and a tidal wave are to get to safety. Mac hasn't been in extreme storm weather like this for a while and doesn't know how to control that part of him yet…which got him worked up…but this doesn't change anything."
Siamon nodded to Shan, just as Malchior and his crew along with some carpenters ran by "Heart, go make sure Root and Death are okay and while your at it find Sunshine and Pan."
"Got it, Shark." Shan said before she jumped at a building, pushed off of that and landed on the roof tops so she could move quicker threw the city without having to deal with the traffic of the city.
"Crow!"
"What…" Kazuya sighed, he wanted to fight but now he knew he was going to be sent on an gathering job.
"Find Mars, and Prophet and tell them to check on Iceburg. Then I'm going to need you and Mariachi to go to the ship make sure everything is tied down and sealed up, get Poly and meet me…" Siamon looked around, then pointed at a tall building in the distance "..on the top of that building."
"Yeah, yeah you don't have to be dramatic about it…" the red eyed man waved his hand in a dismissing motion before disappearing.
Siamon sighed and started to move towards the same building he pointed at, he was moving at a slower pace due to Mac's weight on his shoulder.
"Well ya dumb bear, you really are a pain in my back…"
----X----
Shan reached where the injured where just in time, she saw her boyfriend and friend by a tree. Elsa was laying on the ground unconscious while Endo sat with his back to a tree looking at the sky.
"Endo, Are you alright?" asked Shan, the insane blonde just looked at her and smirked, nodding his head toward Elsa.
"I'll be perfectly fine love…thou it seems Elsa took a nasty blow to the head." Shan gave a faint smile and walked over to him, gave him a light kiss on the forehead before kneeling next to Elsa.
"How long has she been out?"
"Uh…don't know I just woke up a few minutes ago…" Shan sighed to herself, she loved Endo and he was a great leader for there group…but sometimes he can be useless . Out of the corner of her eye Shan noticed Chizuru and Herman near a tree talking to a few of the carpenters, plus Malchior's group.
"Endo let me take care of Elsa you go see what there talking about okay?" he just gave her a grin and a thumb's up, Shan blushed, even thou he can be useless at times when he acted like that he was just to cute…and when he's serous he's sexy.
The doctor gave Endo a 'go away' hand motion "Well go."
The violet haired woman just grinned as he walked toward the group, but opened her bag since Elsa needed her attention.
Pulling out and opening some smelling salts, Shan waved them under the bunny girls nose. Elsa shifted and groaned under her breath, eye's flicking open every few seconds.
"Shit…my head feels like I had one of Mel's weights dropped on it…"the black haired woman murmured trying to sit up.
"Elsa stay down, you have some head trauma but from what I can tell if you go an hour without doing anything you'll be fine."
"What about Penny? From what I can remember was I left he to chase some…body, ran into Endo…he blew up and then falling."
Shan gave her friend a reassuring smile "Don't worry about her…I think she's in good hands at the moment Elsa…now relax and try not to go to sleep okay."
Elsa blew a strand of hair out of her face "Yeah…whatever doc…"
"Hey girls!" called Endo as he jogged lightly to where they were, Shan looked at him confused "What is it Endo?"
"Yeah idiot…" Elsa said turning her head towards the blonde, but both women say the frown on there boss's face.
"It seems Lucci's the reason behind all of this…"
"Big fucking surprise there…" mumbled Elsa, Shan gave the other woman's leg a playful shove "Stop it…" the violet haired doc looked at the woodman "How do you know Endo?"
"It seems Chizuru heard the info somewhere, seems Lucci is part of some government group of killers called CP9."
"Wha-ow…" exclaimed Elsa trying to sit up before holding her chest in pain. The navigator coughed for a few minutes before stopping and slightly surprised to find Shan's arm around her shoulder, helping Elsa threw the fit.
"So you've heard of them?" asked Endo
"Yeah…but only legends and rumors. No one has any proof there real, even marines aren't to sure…that's how I heard of them both, me and Melcom both come from Navy families."
"Ummm…Endo?"
"Yeah?"
"If he's the reason behind this-" Shan gestured to the chaos that was happening around the three "- then there going to want to leave quickly after they do whatever they need to do…"
Endo looked at his girlfriend confused "…and?"
Elsa groaned in frustration, she could see where Shan was going with this…sometimes the doc was a little to lenient with there leader "Dumb ass! Has Lucci paid us yet!"
The blonde just stood there for a second, the two women could hear the rusty gears in his head turn….
"Oh Crap!" Endo yelled and started to run off, but Shan grabbed the back of his pants to stop him.
"You don't know where to look Endo…"
"He's in the mansion!"
"Your not running into a burning building."
"Why?!"
Shan sweat-dropped "Because honey…" she said sweetly "…your made of wood."
"Ah…well you two have any better idea's?"
"Yes but first we need to get Penny and find Siamon."
----X----
"Vell…it seems dat vas…interesting." mumbled Razz, looking at the hole on the side of the mayor's mansion, the rain falling off of his hat brim. Kazuya stood next to him and arrow knocked in his bow aiming at the people inside.
"Hey Razz thirty beli says I can hit the guy with the horns in the balls…"
"Deal." but before the red eyed blonde could get off a shot Meku used his staff and aimed Kaz's bow to the ground.
"No…we saw what we needed to see now lets go to the area Siamon asked us to meet…come on Mars." the blind man turned around and jumped off the building onto another, he was soon followed by the mime.
Razz stood, adjusted his guitar on his back and gave Kazuya a look "Vell 'ou coming?"
The look-out sighed and ran a hand threw his hair "Yeah…I just really needed that beli…"
----X----
"Uh…" Mac groaned as he sat up rubbing his throat, Siamon stood next to him from there spot on top of the building.
"You finally have your senses together…?" asked the fish man being kind to the shipwright for once and helped him up.
"Yeah…but damn it fish stick did ya have to put me in the sleeper? You could have smashed my head threw a wall or something." the bear complained in a raspy voice.
Siamon gave a low chuckled "I could have…but the sleeper was more reliable, I've seen you plow threw to many walls to know that wouldn't work."
Mac shrugged giving off a low chuckle "Yeah…and only a few of those times were intentional. The others were because either you or Elsa got pissed at me."
"There's consequences when you finish off the last drop of MY coffee…"
"…and yet you made me fix that hole in the ships wall after."
Siamon decided to change the subject and pointed toward the four guys moving along the rooftops and nearing there location.
"Kaz, you remember to go get Poly!?" the fish man yelled to the four figure's, both Mac and Siamon saw one trip a little before splitting from the group and head in a different direction, the two laughed.
A few seconds later Meku, Mars, and Razz landed on the roof the musician gave a little wave and tossed Mac something, who caught the box.
"I stopped by 'he rooms 'o get it." Mac looked at the small black velvet box he was given before placing it in his vest pocket.
"Why?"
" I felt you may need it. Since 'his storm may…destroy a 'ew 'hings." While those two talked, so did Siamon and Meku, Mars stood off to the side listening.
"So?" asked Siamon "What happened?"
"Iceburg's fine…trapped in a burning building but fine. But it seems Rob Lucci and a few others in this city were undercover government workers…at least from what I heard."
"Hmmm…" the second in command tapped his chin "…so we were working for an agent…and Iceburg wasn't hurt other than them shooting him but that was before he hired us."
"What do we do? We're conflicted from what I saw they threatened Iceburg, but if we go after government agents that hurts are chances of them asking for jobs-"
"The navy and the government will only hire mercenaries for one of three reasons, either as a last resort, to add number's to there armies during a war, or to do something rotten so they can keep there finger prints off of it." Siamon explained holding up his fingers as he counted off, thou he didn't really need to because Meku couldn't see his hand anyway.
"But we can't act at the moment unless Endo or Iceburg order us to…so we wait hear for now."
"Well I'm hear so…What's up?" questioned Endo popping up between the two, making everyone excluding Meku jump a little.
Shan with a sleeping Elsa on her back, Mac jumped up when he saw them "Elsa!?"
Shan hushed him "She's fine…even thou I would prefer her to stay awake, so don't worry big guy Elsa's fine."
Mac just nodded and lifted Elsa off of Shan's back and into his arms. The black haired woman smiled in her sleep and snuggled into Mac's chest, which caused Mac to blush and Siamon to chuckle…it wasn't often that the fish man found something to embarrass the zoan male with but before he got to say anything Endo interrupted.
"So Si buddy? Why did ya want us to meet here for?" asked Endo, who was nearly bouncing because he wanted to find Lucci.
"So we could have a safe spot for when that wave I heard about hits…"
Endo scoffed "Wave smave we need to find Lucci he still hasn't paid us! So…" Endo turned to Mars "Mars you know where the place that Si found for Lucci is right?" the mime gave him a thumbs up.
"Good, show me….come on!" Endo said waving the mime to follow, Mars just shrugged and went along with it, but Si stopped the two…the other four…conscious Death Root members knew it wasn't worth it to try and stop them.
"No Endo, we don't know what they can do."
"Ha, they can't be any worse than Exuro and his goons… or gramps." the wood man growled the last part.
"That doesn't matter baka you can't go right now."
"But he owes me monnnneeeeeeyyyyyy…" the blonde whined.
"No and that's final Endo." there were two ways to deal with Endo and Penny both (since they hand similar personalities…that girl spends WAY to much time around him) you have to stop them before they do anything…or else bad things start happing around the ship…but then there are other times when…
Endo's eye's widened in surprise as he pointed at the sky "Dude Si look the word 'gullible' is written it the sky!"
"What?" said Siamon turning around to look, sweat-dropped because at that moment he felt like a complete idiot, turning around Siamon noticed Endo and Mars missing.
"Shit…" out of the corner of his eye he saw both Shan and Mac laughing "…shut up! Since there gone we might as well get other stuff done. But first…" Siamon looked at everyone "…were the hell is Penny!"
----X----
"Okay Mars lets go over it again…" said Endo as the two raced along the roofs of Water 7, Mars was running while jotting down notes in a notebook he got form…somewhere.
"Okay first you stop them with one of your 'walls', then we appear and strike some very badass entrance posses, do you think we can get a stereo and some entrance music?" the mime shook his head no, Endo snapped his fingers "Damn…well anyway I ask 'Where's my money!'…or something along those lines, some witty banter and we get are money. Got that?"
Mars gave a thumbs up "So can I see your notes?" the blonde asked and then just taking the notebook without looking for Mars' reply "…Mars this is a picture of an apple eating a tuna fish sandwich."
The mime wanting to distract Endo from going into a 'not taking him seriously' rant, pointed towards a group of people all wearing black suits…thou the women wore something a little more revealing. This thought went threw Mars' head when he saw the women There dressed in something that Elsa would wear if she wanted to give Mac a heart attack…I like.
"Ready Mars…go!" Endo gave the signal Mars held up his hands making his wall, it seemed Lucci (Mars drew a picture of his for Endo…who never saw the guy up close) could already tell it was there…yet there was a woman that was starring at Lucci and ran into the wall because she wasn't paying attention, which alerted the others of it's presence.
When they all stopped both Endo and Mars jumped down (step two in Endo's plan in getting the money) yet the blonde fumbled the landing and face planted into the ground skidding a few feet.
"Mars take note…your face is note a good thing to land on…" mumbled Endo, face still buried in the ground.
"Who the hell are you!" yelled/asked the girl that was fawning over Lucci. Endo ignored her as he stood and brushed himself off, before looking at them labeling each one in his head from where he's seen them before Shipwright, Shipwright, Hot Secretary, that bartender…and the fan girl…the bad kind of fan girl.
Endo shushed the crazy girl…and calling someone crazy is something coming from Endo "Quit…the big guns need to talk."
Lucci eyed Endo up and down before disappearing and reappearing on the side of the invisible wall Endo and Mars stood on "Judging by your appearance and that…mime with you I'm going to guess your Root, right?"
Endo smirked and flicked his nose "Yeah I am…" the woodman noticed Lucci's…friends carrying more than one person " …and it seems your guys picked up more…baggage than just Franky."
"They hold value to the government."
Endo waved his hand "I don't care what the WG wants, I don't care that I-" he wiggled his hand while pointing to one of the people CP9 was carrying "-somewhat know the drunk he's carrying. Hell the only people or things I fucking care about are my sis, my love, my friends and our ship."
Lucci gave Endo a cold glare "Then why did you come here?"
"The money, or a very expensive sword if you got one?"
"A sword?" question the leather clad secretary of Iceburg.
"Yeah…you know it's like a knife…but bigger. Never mind…" Endo turned his attention back to Lucci and gave him a came look, the agent looked back at the merc with a cold stare.
"So Mr. Rob Lucci…" Endo held out his hand, Mars stood a few feet behind him watching Lucci's team "…we found that hangout of Franky's that you didn't know about for you. Plus you owe us for the trouble you caused us for traveling all the way over here and then have us barley do anything, and not even contacting us when we first arrived in Water 7 making us waste time in looking for you…so…
Endo smirked "Pay Up."
Little did Root know that a certain axe wielding…friend of his was watching and listening to the whole conversation.
----X----
Bum Bum Bum! There will be more to the Endo/Lucci conversation in the next chapter, and it seems Axe was watching the whole time! this scene with Lucci is the reason Axe punched Endo in Secret Power before they got on the Rocketman if you guys have been wondering why Axe did that.
Okay I know this chapter was, well nine pages of blah but I think it was necessary to the story don't you?
Now I named this chapter 'The Gray Line' because as it shows at the final scene and a few other times in this story that Death Root aren't bad guys or good guys there walking that thin gray line in-between, and to kinda quote Noah/HRG from 'Heroes', there fine with being morally gray.
Now (coughs getting ready to make announcer voice) it seems Axe has found out Death Root was working for Lucci, and it was also Death Root that gave Lucci the whereabouts of the workshop which resulted in are favorite long nose sniper, drunken boxer, and cyborg shipwright to be captured!
So will Lucci pay up? Will they find Penny? And how mad do you think Kazuya will be when he kinds out he's been running around for no reason!? Find out next time in DR:NA!
The DoD
P.S. I know that time is going fast…but hey I'm tying to keep it interesting.