Back to the Base!

Specter Versus Marcus!

Alexander slumped behind Rina, dragging his feet behind him through the rocky terrain, kicking up dust. Of course, every so often Rina would throw Alexander a backwards glance, just to make sure he didn't get lost, but other then that the two had no forms of communication going on in between them. Hayate was well enough to walk now at the very least and he held a prideful stride in front of Rina, where despite his ignorance of what had happened between the two, it appeared as if he was joining with Rina and completely ignoring Alexander along with Rina.

Alexander had thought about talking to Rina several times along the way, but each and every time he was about to Rina flashed him another cold and dark look that made Alexander think twice. It was as if she could read his mind and had to continually remind him that speaking would result in certain death...more importantly his death. Then again, at least Rina acknowledged his existence. Hayate continued merrily along his way as if Alexander doesn't exist and he never did. As far as Hayate was concerned this was just leisurely walk in the mountains with Rina that took a wrong turn.

Finally, Rina decided to break the silence, "I am going to talk to you as Lieutenant to a Commander... not as a friend to a friend. I need information about these Sons of Blackbeard fellows...I have no particular for anything else you can offer, so I'm going to ask you questions and you are going to answer them. Nothing more and nothing less, understand?"

"Can I just say one..." began Alexander, but another backwards killing glance from Rina forced Alexander to quickly close his mouth. "Yeah, understood," Alexander said solemnly as he continued to shuffle behind her slowly. They climbed over a mountain before Rina resumed conversation.

"How many people in these Sons of Blackbeard?" she asked.

Alexander thought carefully as he recalled each and every single one of them, "there is four, including Edward, the boss, and Boris who was keeping an eye on me in my cage." Alexander stopped as he tried to recall the missions of each and every one of the bandits that had imprisoned him. He remembered that Edward and the gunslinger had both attacked and charged down into the Marine Base, Boris was assigned to guard duty, and then there was the guy with the sword, whose name escaped Alexander at the moment...Alexander was pretty sure he was assigned to attacking and taking down Rina.

Alexander paused as he considered this. He stopped in his tracks and thought about the importance of this piece of information. Rina was probably pretty safe due to her ability to take down Boris, but Alexander still couldn't stop thinking about it. He looked up about to tell her about the order to take her head, but he noticed that she was standing a few feet in front of him with an angry look on her face staring at him. She was not happy about being slowed down while they were on their way to a very important mission. Then it hit Alexander, the cure-all that Veri Fresh had mentioned!

"You are very pretty," said Alexander with a smile as he looked at Rina. Rina frowned upon and just turned around, ignoring the comment, but mostly ignoring him. Alexander's head hung in front of him as he began to walk slowly behind her again.

"Any ideas on how they are going to attack the Marine Base?" asked Rina as she quickened her pace, intending to make up for the time that Alexander had just caused them to lose.

"Well, seeing as how they didn't lock my cage," began Alexander, but paused due to the wording. 'My cage' it made it sound wrong and made him sound incredibly stupid...he sighed as he decided to refocus on the actual problem at hand, Rina, "since they didn't lock THE cage they can't be too smart...I'd say a full-on frontal attack with just two people...doesn't this Marine Base have a captain? Shouldn't he be able to defend it with ease?"

"Well, not all Marine Captains are active...and even fewer of them are smart..." said Rina with a mean glance at Alexander. "I heard from Akane that this one tends to go on vacations a lot to other islands. He has them all disguised as business trips, but nobody among the Marine Base believes it, but since they can't prove it...you know..."

"Looks like fairness and justice doesn't exist in even the Marines," muttered Alexander as he remembered what his old teacher had said about the Marines being merchants that sold a pretty word, but nothing more. After being in the Marines for a couple of years...he had seen what he had meant...Alexander meant to keep all of this inside and not worry Rina, but he let loose a subconscious and depressed sigh.

Rina turned about to see what the sigh was about and only saw Alexander slumped over, shuffling his feet slowly and almost in a automatic fashion like a soldier walking in a military line. He wasn't fully conscious of what he was doing...he was just doing it. Rina wanted to stay mad at him as what he did was fully unforgivable, but its hard to stay mad at someone who looked so depressed. Rina put her hand on Alexander's shoulder and patted him quietly.

Alexander looked up, startled. He saw Rina smiling and guiding him forward. Alexander sighed as the two of them continued their walk. It was funny, despite being together all this time Alexander never looked at Rina's eyes, according to his master, staring at someone's eyes was like a challenge from one animal to another...but now that he did, he noticed she had aquamarine colored eyes...and in that moment he had to wonder...if he had tried to kiss her now like Specter said what it have been any different from a few minutes ago when he had failed?

He shook the thought from his head as he remembered that Rina specifically hated him for trying to kiss her and calling her his wife (as to why, he still did not fully understand). He instead focused on Hayate. The little dog ignoring the fact that Rina had forgiven Alexander and continued to ignore Alexander as it walked on its way. Alexander was starting to think that Hayate just didn't like him regardless.

(-With Specter-)

Specter stood opposite of Marcus. Both of them with their guns drawn and taking careful aim at the other one. Both of them staring at the other one and at the weapons each possessed. Marcus looked at Specter's crossbow and sized it up, while the ammo he used was unconventional and the weapon itself had some slight modifications done to it...it was still a crossbow. It could only fire one shot at a time and rapid-fire was not its strong suit. The only thing that left a question mark in Marcus' head was the ammo...was it the same grenade Specter had used last time? Or was it an improved piece of weaponry with more omph or a special effect? Rushing in now after all of his careful thinking would only be a bad move for Marcus, he had to careful examine his opponent's weapon.

Specter glanced at Marcus' weapon as far as more interesting weapon went, Specter's took the cake. Marcus' gun was a new six-cylinder revolver. Six shots and it was out...and Marcus had to stop shooting and reload...a big opening...while Specter had to reload a lot, but his reloading process was simpler, easier, and faster...the big difference would be whether or not Specter could last through all six Marcus' shots to see him reload.

Specter was the first to shoot. He took aim with his crossbow sending one of his grenades flying forth aimed at Marcus. Marcus dodged it and watched the small capsule crash and explode into the wall behind him. Marcus quickly righted himself, bringing himself up from the ground and into a kneeling position. He aimed his gun at Specter, but decided against upon seeing that Specter had already dropped another grenade into his crossbow and was awaiting Marcus' shot. Marcus dropped his gun to his side, giving up on getting a shot off. Marcus unconsciously bit his lip as he watched Specter jump back furthering the distance in between them.

Marcus was impressed with Specter's gun to say the least. Judging from the last shot its range was pretty good, despite the fact that it was only a crossbow that was shooting moderately sized containers of explosives. He wouldn't have had believed that an ancient relic like a crossbow was capable of doing it...but yet here he was watching a man walk about with a single crossbow launching powerful and deadly capsules. It wasn't a mass-produced piece of junk like most guns...but then again neither was his.

Marcus charged off towards Specter. As powerful as his launcher was, it was just as big. Unlike Marcus' small gun Specter needed more room to maneuver the hulking mass of the crossbow. That was the reason why Specter had jumped backwards, a preemptive strike put as much distance as he could in between them as quick as possible therefore Marcus had to spend more time later on to close the gap. Specter fired a shot off at Marcus, the small little ball of explosive flew through the air directly at Marcus. Marcus grunted, he lifted his gun and fired twin shots. The first one would cause the ball to either explode or deviate and the second would have a straight to Specter.

The bullet and the bomb exploded as soon as they came into contact with one another. A loud boom went off as Marcus flinched from the noise his eardrums injured from the sound. He kept his eyes open, though, despite the harsh light determined to keep his eyes on Specter. Marcus grunted as the smoke began to clear from the explosion. Specter was across from him in the room. He still had a stupid smirk on his face as he looked at Marcus, but he had a hole in his shirt that was singed from Marcus' second shot.

"Damn," uttered Specter as he examined his coat, "I really liked this shirt and now would you look at it...you ruined it...and trust me that bullet hole ain't just going to wash out of it..." Specter joked as he shook his head, "I guess I better get serious or you are going to ruin all of my clothing, aren't you?" Specter chuckled as he grabbed his goggles and pulled them over his eyes, preparing to continue the shoot-out.

"Before we continue I should ought level with you and tell you a little about my gun," stated Specter as he lifted his crossbow up and into the air. He slid another one of the spheres into place. "The ammo I fire is a special form of weaponry I designed, I call it a Pop Grenade! The crossbow is just something I designed in order to properly fire and utilize my ammo...so, just watch out for my ammo rather then my crossbow, cool?"

Marcus raised his one eyebrow as he looked over at him, "and why are you telling me this?" He couldn't believe that the man was plain out explaining his weaponry in the middle of a fight... "wouldn't it be better if you just kept your weaponry secrets to yourself? I mean why explain your weaponry to your opponent?"

"If I didn't explain it then this fight would be over with too quickly and we wouldn't be able to have this nice talk, now would we?" asked Specter as he brought his crossbow around and fired another shot. The small green Pop Grenade sailed through the air and smashed into the wall behind Marcus. Marcus brought his arms up to protect his eyes from the debris caused from the explosion. He let out a grunt as he opened his eyes only to see a second Pop Grenade flying at him. Marcus dove forward, barely in the nick time allowing the grenade to sail above his head and smashed into the wall.

Marcus pivoted around and produced his gun, firing another shot aiming at Specter's head. Specter dodged to the left and felt the bullet graze the air around him. Marcus wasn't about to let the opportunity slip away as Specter still hadn't reloaded his crossbow, he let loose a second shot at Specter. The bullet blasting towards Specter. Specter dove to the left while he grabbed a new pop grenade from his ammo jacket. He quickly slid it in and swung it about taking aim at Marcus.

Specter remembered this guy from the last time they had tried to attack the Marine Base, even then the Marine Captain had been gone on one of his missions...Specter remembered that day as something different as that was when Specter had earned his nickname, Mr. Kamikaze...it would be a while before Specter forgot that day.

This was absolutely not what I was planning...I was planning on it being all about Specter's past...and how he earned his dreaded nickname, Mr. Kamikaze...but...no, I slipped up. Anyways, on to the next case...I apologize to all of my readers who disliked the whole moment between Alexander and Rina...it just kind of came out while I was typing...so, yeah...it...probably won't happen again...I personally don't really think they make a good couple...

Also, for those of you who do not read my other story, Saga of the Infinity Pirates, I have midterms and as a result a lot of studying and projects I got to do, so don't be surprised if I don't update...for up to four weeks...okay? (Hopefully, it won't be THAT bad...but you never know).