Onwards!

Sailing Towards Treasure, Friendship, and a New Era!

"Crap," James muttered as he stretched his arm, a slight tenderness still pulsing through them as he tried to hold it in. "It hurts like hell." Olivia simply scoffed at him as she set the ship to a new destination and walked over to talk to him.

The Log Pose she was using would give them at least a couple of minute before she had change directions and the weather seemed fairly calm right now. A slight chance of rain later on in the day, but they were on a ship...and it had cabins. Thought they definitely needed to take down the Marine flag and possibly hoist one of their own. Maybe a skull with wings or something?

The ship had been 'stolen' (though James preferred the term 'relieved') from the Marine base. It was the standard issue galleon, huge, impressive, inducing fear into anyone who set their eyes upon its sleek white hull, tall mast supporting the white sails, and a crow's nest which James had been to take down the flag. However, since as a pirate crew not only were they inexperienced, but it turns out neither of them had any experience drawing or designing flags, so they still lacked a pirate flag, which was probably for the better as they currently blended in with any other Marine ships around and they caused very little stir.

"So, about that map," asked Olivia holding her hand out, expecting James to just hand it over, which he did. He supposed there was no harm in letting her see it. He plopped the box into her hand and she smiled. She wasn't money hungry, but with the promise of a few million trillion belies in her hand, she (like all people) began drooling at the thought. She went to open and found it impossible to open, she scanned it over and quickly found the lock. She held her hand out to James again, "the key, too, please."

"Don't have it," James put rather plainly, despite it being a rather integral part to the lock. The key and lock kind of went together for a reason.

"Stop joking around," Olivia said as she wiggled her fingers again, somewhat hungrily for the money.

"Not joking, don't have the key," James put plainly.

Olivia sighed. Great...no key, just a box. "Do you at least remember what the first island was on the map?" They could at least get started with going on the right track, maybe the first island was luckily an island of friendly locksmiths.

"Don't know, I haven't looked at the map myself yet."

"Then how do you know there is even a map in this box?" asked Olivia, looking down at James questioningly. She was beginning to sense a face palm coming up. She really hoped she was just a little on edge from escaping the Marine Base and finally being able to smell fresh air again.

"A friendly old man told me," James said, only half-jokingly. Olivia glared at him, instantly telling him to cut the crap. James sighed. "If it makes you feel any better it was pirate...who was originally a Marine...who was being hunted by a Marine...oh, and only I knew him for like a day." James happily munched on a small cracker. The Marine ship came with a fully stocked fridge, he was very thankful for that. While most of the food was simple things like crackers or canned food, like emergency rations it was better then the food he and Olivia had...which was, put plainly, nothing.

Olivia swatted the cracker out of James' hand and into the sea, "be serious!"she barked, but James barely heard her. He was too busy moping over the side of the ship and staring at his now drowning cracker.

"You've seen the map, right?" shouted Olivia. James shook his head, still whimpering at the sight of his cracker. "At least tell me the guy you got it from was one-hundred percent trust-worthy!" James shook his head again. He had only known him for like a day. Olivia was boiling mad at him now as she screamed, "AT LEAST TELL ME YOU HAVE A BRAIN IN THAT SKULL OF YOURS!"

James paused for a second and leaned back. He supposed he did...but if Olivia didn't believe James when he said there was a map to One Piece in the box, simply because he never saw it before he supposed the same thing could be said for his brain. He had never saw his brain before...perhaps it really didn't exist. Hmm, food for thought he supposed. Speaking of food, James returned to the edge of the ship to mourn his poor cracker. However, he was soon lifted a few feet off of the ground.

"A GOOD DUNK IN THE WATER SHOULD TEACH YOU TO MESS WITH MY HEART!" shouted Olivia as she tried to push James off of the ship.

"WAIT, WAIT!" shouted James as he tried to cling onto the railing of the ship for dear-life.

"Why? You ate a Devil Fruit or something?" Olivia asked, James shook his head. "Oh...well, then you won't drown at least!" shouted Olivia tossing James overboard and into the water. Olivia stood there for a few more seconds on the edge of the ship, waiting for James to climb back aboard...but it never came. She turned around and looked down at the sea, only to see James flailing.

"Swim you idiot!" she shouted down to encourage him...once again James had found out that Olivia had a fondness for pointing out the obvious. Like the thought of swimming had never occurred to him. "Wait a minute...you don't know how to, do you?" Olivia felt like laughing as James continued to flail about, indicating to her that she was quite right. Until she realized...he really was drowning.

Olivia lowered a rope ladder down to her (idiotic, but trustworthy) captain. She then dove into the water and promptly rescued him. "You idiot! What the hell is wrong with you? Not knowing how to swim and yet being a pirate captain."

"I'm from Skypiea! We didn't exactly have pools of your guys' water lying around, now did we?" coughed James, spewing a bit more water onto the deck of the ship, causing Olivia to gag a little. "Besides who threw me overboard!" Olivia looked away briefly and shook her head, he couldn't possibly be saying that this was her fault.

"When are we getting to the next island," asked James as he stretched out, apparently wanting bygones to be bygones. Besides he needed to lie out in the sun and let his clothes dry.

"I don't know, I don't even have a map," she said with a biting tone, reminding James once more of his supposed map, that may or may not exist. He had hoped she had the entire Grand Line mapped out in her head. Was that even possible? Nah, probably not.

"It could be days, week, or even months before we get there. Plus, I don't even know where 'there' is. It could be in the New World or maybe even Reverse Mountain for all I know." Olivia stated with a slight hint of depression to her voice.

James looked completely dumbfounded. She was speaking a language completely foreign to him after all. New World? Reverse Mountain? They sounded like neat places, but names were often deceiving. He had always thought Olivia sounded like a lady's name and here he found out it was the name of the devil.

"Could be minutes," pointed out James, which caused Olivia to scoff. He was a helplessly hopeful buffoon, but she supposed that could be considered a good point by some people though. To her it was just annoying. "I think we should get a chef next," James laughed causing Olivia to roll her eyes.

"We need a thief to open the box first," pointed Olivia. "We also need a Shipwright to make some proper improvements to the ship, a sniper to use the cannons properly, a doctor to take of us when we get sick, or at the very least someone with half a brain..."

"Or a musician!" shouted James like a little kid causing Olivia to promptly wallop him on the head.

"We do not need a musician, we should focus strictly on what we need first. We can fulfill your little fantasies afterwards," Olivia said with a heavily annoyed sigh. James shrugged, pulled another cracker out of the box and began to happily munch away. "Give me one of those," Olivia stated, snapping the box out of James hand and pulling a cracker out for herself. James remained perfectly content, while Olivia seemed to be focusing on other issues. In other words all of the problems with her current life.

(-on a nearby island-)

"Left, right, up, down," muttered someone in a mask quietly as ze swiftly moved through the lock around in their head, ze was bent before a small lock that held a group of imprisoned pirates. Or so they were called. The masked vigilante had uncovered the truth about them, over half of them were innocent.

The 'pirates' were all giddily gathering at the front of the cage, except for one or two which hovered near the back. They apparently found it too tedious to act like an excited schoolboy at the idea of getting out of here. It wasn't really this moment that was most important, the thanks wasn't important either, it was the idea that the Marines couldn't just throw their powers around any more.

There was no telling when the Marines would return. They were off on a stupid coffee break. If the masked man was in charge of this base, they would...they would...ah, never mind. The task at hand was most important. Finally there was a definite click as the gate came open, swinging free for just a brief moment before the trapped 'pirates' roared with glee. The trapped prisoners rushed forward uttering their thanks amidst their frenzied rush.

One of the ones in the back of the cell began to move forward, but the masked man held up a hand as ze swiftly shut the door in his face and locked it back up. "You bitch! What the hell!?" he swore, grinding his teeth as he glared through the bars at the hand that hovered just inches from his face. "I'm innocent just like the rest of them bastards."

"Of course, you are," laughed the masked person, the pirate picked up a slightly feminine tone. "My first hint is obviously your well-groomed table manners." The pirate growled loudly as he banged on the prison cell door. "You sadly actually are guilty of your crimes. I'm sorry, but you are to remain in this cell until the date of your execution." The masked man swiveled briefly on his feet, probably only got a few feet away when a tight tug on his ponytail forced mer back and against the cell door.

"You get down on your hands and knee, right this instant, apologize your ass off for insulting me like this and unlock this cell door again, maybe...just maybe after all of that I will let you off of the hook and let you live," the man licked his lips as he pulled mer in closer to the cell door. "How does that sound?"

"You still wet the bed, don't you?" the masked stated calmly as the man's face went blank, this man wasn't scary in the least. The prisoner began to stammer out a 'no', but he was interrupted rather quickly. "You're also a virgin asides from the women you force or pay, never gotten a grade higher than a C, you're decent with your money, probably a fairly big shot in your home town...and that's given you a swelled head."

"H-how did you..." the man stammered for a few seconds, everything ze had stated had been dead on the money. He didn't know anyone who knew all of that about him...hell, he even always blamed the soiled bed in the cell on someone else. No one knew that crap about him. He shook his head, "lucky guess!" he growled pulling the lock picker in closer.

"I said that you were a big shot in your home town, right?" the masked vigilante asked. The man grinned, damn straight. He was the biggest shot in his home town, everybody around him always fell to his feet, begging for him to spare their pathetic lives and he usually did. He was just that kind of merciful bastard. "Well, I have news for you," it said as their hands went down to their waist, where a blade laid. The attack was swift, the cut was clean...and the man cried like a baby. The man's hand was severed about halfway through, luckily the masked person had stopped early as they didn't particularly like the sight of blood or death. "This is not your home town." The masked vigilante turned around swiftly. The sound of the Marines footsteps grew closer, they could manage to patch up his hand again, but he'd probably never be able to grab someone's ponytail ever again.

"Wait! Wait!" the man begged, "how did you know all that stuff about me, huh? Not even my own momma knows that crap."

The girl twisted mer lips into frown, but shrugged and despite the mask, he could sense the smile that lied beneath it. "I can read you like a book. I can read anyone like a book. You people are just that simple."

A Marine's Kingdom

Ta-DA! Technically there was an OC in this chapter, however, because I didn't give her name (trying to prevent uncovering the fact that it even was a she for extra effect, but it failed) I will not be saying who created her until she gets a proper introduction. Oh, well, things happen. Ze/mer are gender neutral pronouns.

Yes, James and Olivia did make out with a mountain of gold too...but they forgot to stock up on things like food and water. Luckily for them the Marines were kind enough to solve that problem for them with a fully stocked refrigerator (Ain't the Marines nice?)

Also, before I continue I want to thank anyone who has been reviewing. From previous experience I can easily say reviewers die off faster than flies on fire. So, really thanks to everyone who is reviewing.

Planning an SBS-sort of thing next chapter compiling the questions I've been asked, so look forward to that.