Trouble in Advance

It was a long fall and an even rougher landing for Leon. Noticeably battered, it took him a few minutes to regain consciousness and orient himself. Just as the incoherent buzzing in his ears ceased, it was replaced with a weighty movement crunching over the uneven surface below him. He was slowly able to make out the creeping sound as that of footsteps, close ones. "Who are you," Leon barked, his usual belligerence ever present.

But, just as he felt the looming presence right above his crouched form - his eyes looking up but unable to make out anything in the darkness - he felt a small pinch in his neck, like that of a needle. The hand that stuck him felt synthetic as if it were gloved. That was the last thing he felt before his body collapsed onto the cold ground, the sneering words mocking him from above.

"You'll make a fine, subject. Nanonanonanonano," the voice laughed before exiting.

If the crew thought the strange island dark and creepy from the coast, then the thick foliage of the unnervingly fuzzy and abundant fauna surrounding them was truly overbearing in its ominous ambience, suffocating any stray specks of light within the trappings of the intricately interwoven canopy above them. Everywhere they stepped or grabbed, attempting to gain some sort of foothold, it felt as if the forest were alive, moving and slithering beneath their very fingertips even as the empty shells of once thriving natural life lingered in their collective limited vision.

"Why'd it turn out like this," Shaad openly whined.

"Shut up," Bo scolded. "We're going with your plan."

"Yea, but I should be with Mino."

"You and Alexander both," Bo mumbled to himself. "I swear you're just like little kids."

Indeed, Bo had ultimately opted to go with the plan put forth by Shaad. And, in accordance with that plan, Bo had split select members of the crew into three parties: his heading straight into the dense, dark forest along the path previously carved by the initial scout party and more thoroughly by Leon while one each was sent in opposite directions along the coast.

The plan called for Bo's group - consisting of himself, Shaad, Ray, Kayden, Kaleb, Rose, and twelve of the strongest former White Knights (members of an elite, armored heavy infantry group within the White Knights known as the Divine Knights) - to head right into the forest and hurry toward the location Mage said the lab was located at as loud and fast as possible. This would ideally draw any lurking enemies and ambushers to investigate and attack them. While the ploy was dangerous for them it would serve to clear most of the obstacles from their allies' paths as Mage led a group including Alexander to the lab from about 45 marks to the right of Bo's initial entrance point and the masked figure led a group of his own in from the left of their position.

Mage and the masked man's groups were each geared for speed and stealth while Bo's focused more on raw power. Accordingly, Bo's group would face the enemy grunts and hidden threats head on while the other two led their teams around the back of the enemy to take out the leaders, and then they'd all proceed together through the ensuing chaos. Of course, that entire plan ran under the volatile assumption that those drugged, zombie-like freaks were less dangerous without a leader controlling them.

As much noise as Bo's group made hacking and slashing their way along the path of destruction Leon laid out for them to follow, it was Shaad's constant complaining that was probably more likely to draw out any lurking foes. "Why did I have to come along," he whined in an exhausted tone.

"You may not be a member of my crew, but so long as you're on my ship, you're subject to my command," Bo declared, his patience with the lazy yet powerful freeloader wearing thin. "You eat more food than anyone on my crew and expect not to work? And, don't act like you're too tired; I know your energy has been fully revitalized."

"You couldn't begin to understand how my energy works," Shaad warned, his tone suddenly changing. "But, I will tell you one thing: I'm barely over half right now." The foreboding tone in his voice was clear, though the wide smile on his lips was evident to any who turned back and looked at him. "Besides," he started in a more upbeat manner, "I'm more bored than tired, anyway."

The former White Knights moved along in a diamond formation with Kaleb and Rose protected inside and Kayden leading the way alongside Ray while Bo and Shaad brought up the rear. It soon quieted down with Shaad's complaining cut to a lingering groan and the group continued marching in relative silence aside from the incessant yammering of Kaleb. While the young man talked Rose's ear off (much to her mounting annoyance), the rest of the group tuned him out, Ray only taking a quick moment to comment to Kayden about his little brother's nonstop boasting.

It was a simple task to follow Leon's rampant obliteration of nature even in the suffocating darkness. The open pathway also made it harder for them to be caught off guard by an ambush, thus the journey continued on rather uneventfully. That is, until Ray cut through two trees leaning against each other, creating an arch, and the vines and parasitic branches that hung from them, bringing the group out into a large, wide open clearing. They would've assumed it more of Leon's handiwork if not for the striking lack of splintered debris littering the area, replaced instead with piles of dead leaves and disturbed dirt alongside numerous statuettes and stone crosses.

The narrow opening forced the group to break formation and shuttle into the open area where those with torches cautiously fanned out. The landscape was stark to say the least, from what they could tell, save for a handful of broken cherub statues and the large mounds of dirt and dead leaves.

The air was still, dead as could be, and time seemed frozen in that place, an unnerving sense hanging about it that reached out and grabbed all that entered. Even the rambunctious Kaleb quickly quieted himself, drawing a few bewildered eyes to make sure he was okay. But, the setting played the most on Rose. Her nerves were on edge in the darkened silence, only the sound of leaves crunching underfoot piercing the suffocating sense of dread. As a result, her untapped Devil Fruit powers began to rear their ugly head. Over the past month and a half, Rose had made gradual progress in holding the unwanted power at bay thanks to Bo's intense training, but, given their current circumstances, she allowed her fear to override the training, giving the Zoan abilities the chance to peek through.

As her eyes shifted form, new smells began to invade her improved sense of smell. The scattered rays of light breaking through the tangled tree limbs above only provided barely noticeable illumination, but with her nose guiding her as to where to look, Rose turned to the source of the terrible stench that plagued her olfactory sense. And, with the diamond formation broken around her combined with the light from the torches, she saw clearly a terrifying sight.

All eyes immediately turned to Rose as she let out an ear-splitting scream. Bo was the first to react. Noticing the pointed ears growing beneath her lightening hair, he moved in a flash, stepping in front of the frightened, early teenage girl and placing a calming hand firmly on her shoulder. Without wasting a second, Bo closed his eyes tight to see what his young doctor's eyes were locked on.

Upon seeing the gruesome sight, he slid his palm over her eyes and opened his own to take in the stomach churning spectacle for himself while repeating the same phrase, "Breathe. Control the beast," over and over to Rose's trembling form. Bo clutched her tightly to his side, thankful that Kaleb had been stunned into silence by the traumatic surprise, while silently motioning for the Divine Knights to retake their positions around him and Ray to cut down the massacred body before them.

While most of those present had long ago been introduced to the cruelties the world offered, even many of them found it hard to hold their lunch looking at the mutilated carcass of a man before them, decapitated and strung up on a makeshift cross for all to see as blood still poured from the stumps that now resided where the deceased's hands once were, pooling into a sordid mixture below him alongside his spilling guts. The kill was obviously fresh and the scene manufactured for intimidation or as a warning.

The putrid smell was overbearing, but Ray still made quick work of his task, covering his nose as he cut the bindings holding the body up and lay it in the shadows of two decayed brooks under a pile of dead leaves, remorseful that there was no time for a more proper burial. "I recognize those cuts," Ray whispered to Bo as he returned to the group.

"I recognize those clothes," Johannes chimed in. "He's one of ours; a White Knight."

"And, you'll soon be joining him," a mysterious voice emanated from the opening at the other end of the clearing followed by an increased rustling in the dense trees surrounding them on all sides.

"It was impossible to surprise them on their turf after all," Mage thought aloud as he watched dozens of the drugged warriors stumble into the path below the trees where he and his group sat perched. He'd long since filled the trail with numerous blue wisp of smoke snaking along the ground, conjuring up visions of his group marching along for the unaware foe. But the lumbering enemies failed to react even as his illusory forces readied to attack. Using his summoned images for cover, Mage threw multiple knives into the opposing ranks to test their reactions.

When all they did was slow their advance to pause and look around, Mage knew these soldiers were indeed not normal. With a hand sign to command his group to stay back, Mage dropped from the tree he'd been spying from, his black long coat billowing behind him. Landing with a muffled thud on the soft ground, he strolled forward, withdrawing the short sword from his waist and the straight bladed, blunt tipped khanda on his back as he went. Without waiting for the small horde to (literally) sniff out his position, Mage set to work.

Figuring his paralytic poison would be near useless, he used the longer blades of the two swords to take down his opponents as he skillfully weaved his way through their ranks. Using his superior agility and senses, Mage was able to cut off outstretched limbs and the occasional head all while avoiding the grabbing hands of the dangerously savage foe. Ducking under an errant swipe from the right, he simultaneously cut off the leg of an enemy to his left. In the same movement he crushed in the chest of a different foe on his right with the weighted side of his khanda before rising up and stabbing his short sword into the neck of the soldier whose leg he'd just cut off. With a twist of the handle, Mage used the leverage to deliver a jumping roundhouse kick to a fast approaching creature, sending it barreling to the side into three others and popping off the head of his initial quarry in the process.

The wide arcing move turned Mage around, but also held off the hungry mob a split second longer, providing him with the few precious nanoseconds needed to completely bisect another ready to pounce, snarling adversary with the reinforced diamond serrated plate edge of his modified khanda and use the teetering lower body to perform a quick and impressive backflip over the drugged horde rapidly closing in. He nimbly twisted in the air and landed in a crouch behind them before swiftly and impressively slicing his way through many of the rest until he escaped the constant threat of their massive numbers.

However, having obviously lost track of his direction somewhere along the way, Mage found himself backed up against a line of trees and bushes with all of the surviving monsters advancing on him from all directions.

"Ordre de Rui: Bulletstorm," Alexander's voice called out from behind the threatening horde before each of the creatures were summarily mowed down by vicious thrusts, holes blasted through them as if sprayed liberally by a gatling gun. As the torn and shredded bodies fell lifelessly to the ground, barely more than bullet-ridden chunks of meat, Alexander calmly strolled forward, replacing his rapier on his hip. He wore a smug grin, obviously satisfied with himself for presumably saving the life of the mysterious crewmate he'd only recently wanted to throttle with his own hands. Mage, though, was unresponsive, contemplatively staring past the former prince as if he weren't even there before turning to continue onwards to the preplanned destination and motioning for the others to follow.

Over on the other side of the island, the small bodied masked man of the White Knights was having similar troubles as he stood surrounded by the unusual enemy. It was impossible to read his expression through the rag around his head, but his visible eye was quickly darting all around. His body, though, showed a strange calm even in the dire situation, and as the sharp blade of a sai dropped from each loose sleeve, one might even guess he'd let a small smile cross his lips.

While his lean, lithe frame held little hidden strength, the veiled White Knight had earned his spot among the elite Divine Knights with an unmatched combination of speed, precision, and agility. By utilizing that particular skill set to its fullest extent, the mindless zombie-like soldiers facing him were no match even with their fear inducing numbers and the lethal attributes they themselves possessed. The shrouded Divine Knight spun around on a pivot, striking at every drugged creature in rapid succession and with lightning speed, slipping the thin blades of his sai in between ribs to puncture hearts, lungs, intestines and kidneys from every angle. Ending the blinding flurry with a skull piercing uppercut to the closest one, a fierce, resounding blast of wind erupted from the center, blowing back each of the monstrosities and leaving only the mysterious man standing or even moving aside from a few violent death throes from some fallen enemies.

'Still no sign of a leader; we need to hurry and back up the main force.'